TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
by green-leaf9
Summary: Anakin Solo survives in Sbs, and this story takes place right after Rebel Stand. Anakin takes Danni Quee as his apprentice and his life turns completely upside down. ANAKIN SOLO FANS MUST READ!!


(AUTHORS NOTE: This is a 'what if' story about if Anakin Solo had survived in Star by Star. This takes place right after Rebel Stand, and he had gone with his uncle, aunt, Tahiri, Danni, and some of the Wraiths to Coruscant. This story is about Luke giving Anakin an apprentice and that apprentice turns out to be Danni Quee. This is about the relationship that Anakin and Danni share and how it deepens and grows. This is a very humorous and romantic story. I've worked really hard on this and I hope you all enjoy!)

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PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ AND REVIEW!!!!

Anakin and Danni

By: green_leaf9

Prelude

Having arrived back on Borleias after the mission to Coruscant with the Wraiths, Mara, Tahiri, Anakin, and Danni Quee, everyone was more then a bit tired. Looking around in the hangar Luke spotted his family and friends who were coming to greet them. He smiled broadly at the group and reached out with the Force to touch them. To his surprise, when he touched Jaina he felt something...different. She was no longer leaning towards the dark side, though she was till a bit on the borderline. Luke dug deeper and a warmth of happiness touched his heart when he realized that his niece had finally made amends with her mother. His family seemed to be rebuilding itself and he couldn't have been happier.

"Master Skywalker," Kyp Durron greeted Luke with a handshake. "It's good to see you back."

Luke nodded his head. "I'm glad to see you too, Kyp."

The younger man moved to greet Anakin and began speaking to the boy friendily about the mission and what happened.

"My squadron is doing very well, Uncle Luke." Jaina announced to him. "You should have seen the way I saved Jag the last time."

Luke felt a pang of jealousy coming from his youngest nephew. He smiled inwardly. Anakin was continuously competing on who was the better pilot with Jaina, and once with Jacen before his seemingly death. The boy wanted to be the best, and Luke knew that he would be. He was extraordinarily gifted in the Force and knew that he would make a great difference in the galaxy. He had showed his skills especially when he had led a mission with his twin siblings where he almost got killed and where Jacen seemed to have died. Having lost both of the boys would have been awful. Luke already felt enough pain about losing Jacen.

Looking over his shoulder at Anakin, Luke realized that he would have to find something that would sharpen Anakin's skills and become even greater because deep in his heart he knew that Anakin Solo would be the greatest Jedi of his generation.

_"Luke....Luke..."_

"Who is this?"

"Young Anakin Solo is ready for the status of Jed Master. Though he still blames himself for the death of Chewbacca and is deeply pained by the disappearence of his brother, I believe that giving the boy a student will keep him away from the dark side. You know that he is ready. A student will be good for him."

Luke didn't respond, but listened intently to the oddly familiar and distant voice.

"The boy is powerful. You know this, as do many other Jedi who have encountered him. Anakin is strong. He will be great."

Eyes snapping open, Luke Skywalker looked around tosee that he was back in his quarters at the New Republic defense base on Borleias. He glanced to his side and saw Mara still sleeping deeply. It had been earlier that day that Luke had arrived back to Borleias with some Wraiths, Mara, Tahiri, Anakin, and Danni Quee from a trip to Coruscant, where the Vong had taken over. But his mind was not on the recent mission to Coruscant, but on the voice that had spoken to him. It was so familiar and it told him just what he needed to know. He had great plans for young Anakin, his nephew. In fact, he deeply believed that the boy would somehow be the reason if the war were to shift towards the New Republic's side. 

"Mara." Luke nudged his wife. "Mara, wake up."

Mara shifted, opened her eyes, and when she saw Luke staring down at her she groaned. "Luke, I'm sleepy."

"I don't know who just spoke to me in my dreams, but I know it was real and the advice I was given was good."

Mara blinked, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stared hard at her husband. "Obi Wan?"

He shook his head. "No. No, not Obi Wan." he said quietly, remembering the old Jedi Master. "Give me a list of people who would make good Jedi apprentices that are here on Borleias." 

Anakin Solo sat in quiet meditation on the hangar's floor. He was looking for Jacen. Again. Like everyone else, he hadn't felt his brother's death. He should have felt him, but hadn't. Half of him hoped that he was still alive, and half of him thought that his brother was dead. Stretching out with the Force he could feel his little cousin Ben safe and sound far away from danger, along with other familiar Jedi. He felt his mother, father, Jaina, Luke, Mara, Tahiri, Lando, Wedge, and everyone that he knew very well that was on Borleias. He touced each of their minds, seeing that they were all busy with something or other. When he touched his uncle, he could immedietly sense that Luke was up to something, but wasn't sure what. The man seemed pretty excited about whatever it was.

Eyes opening to the sound of a patrol of starfighters taking off, Anakin stood and straightened out his robe. He was Jedi to the bone and wanted to look as dignified as possible for everyone who saw him. He then made his way towards the conference room where the Inner Circle would be having a meeting soon.

Once reaching the door to the conference room, Anakin was stopped by a strong hand on his shoulder. The touch was familiar and he knew it was his Uncle. He turned and smiled a greeting to Luke.

"Anakin." he was beaming.

"Uncle Luke, you look thrilled about something."

His smile widened. "Anakin, how do you feel about having an apprentice of your own?"

His icy blue eyes widened and sparkled. "Are-are you suggesting..." he stammered and tried his best to put together a sentence. "I-"

"I thought so." Luke patted his nephew on the shoulder. "It should keep you and her busy."

"Her, Uncle Luke? You already know who my apprentice is going to be?" his mind wandered to all the female Jedi that could possibly be his student.

"Danni Quee."

Anakin felt his jaw slacken, but he tried kept his face as emotionless as possible. Danni Quee, who was six years his senior was a very attractive young woman whose Force sensitivity had been discovered when she had sent out a telepathic distress call, which Anakin's brother had heard. The woman had a small frame, lively blue eyes that always seemed to be asking questions, and curly blond hair. She was a scientist who was an expert on Yuuzhan Vong technology, and aside form that busy duty she also went on the occasional mission with the Wild Knights, and she barely had time for her training. 

"I know what you're thinking. This is why Danni would be your perfect apprentice. You two are going to usually be in the same places and both of you are busy. You might have to be a little persistent with some New Republic military leaders about tagging along with certain missions that Danni may go on, but I'm sure you can handle it. Coruscant is gone and the New Republic will be constantly moving to different bases. The same people will always be going along to each new base...I've already had a talk about this to Danni. At first she completely disagreed with the idea, but I persuaded her and she finally agreed to this apprenticeship to you." he paused. "This will be good for you and I think that you'll be a great teacher."

Anakin would have been literally jumping for joy, but his Jedi discipline kept him standing still. He knew that he was a great Jedi and his father had often told him that he was Jedi to the bone. Now he would be a Master!

The doors opened and Luke gently pushed his stunned nephew into the conference room. Inside sat the usually group of Insiders, who were basically a group of people committing treason against the New Republic to actually help the New Republic.

"What's wrong with Anakin?" Anakin heard Lando lean over and murmur to Han. "He looks not like his Jedi self."

Han looked over his son and nodded his head. "Luke got him an apprentice."

Lando's eyes widened. "Really? A Master already? Wow." he smiled at Anakin who took a seat across from Jaina. The two siblings were already deep in conversation, keeping their voices low so everyone else wouldn't hear. From the hand gestures form the two of them, the excitement seemed like it was growing with each word coming out of their mouths.

Leia smiled. "We'll get to talk to him later about it."

"Alright, once the others get here we can begin." Wedge Antilles said, walking towards the end of the table.

Corran Horn quickly came into the conference room, followed soon after by Danni Quee who was carrying datapads. Her curly blond hair was pulled back in a messy tail, and she looked as if she had been doing a million things at the same time.

Anakin took a good look of his apprentice and felt himself flush for some reason. Before she could turn to regard him, Anakin turned and focused his attention on Wedge.

"Close the doors." Wedge told the guards.

Anakin wasn't listening as Luke spoke about the mission to Coruscant, Danni reported on the samples she had picked up from Coruscant when she was there, and Jaina spoke about how her Twin Suns squadron was doing. All of this was followed by plans to fight against the Yuuzhan Vong using the soft fighting style of the New Rebel Alliance.

Anakin was as silent as ever, continuously looking over at Danni and stretching out with the Force to get a familiar feel of her. It wasn't hard since she was strong in the Force. Thinking about training method already, Anakin's mind wandered to his brother. He knew that his brother had held feelings for the scientist, and he wasn't sure if Jacen ever got over them. Anakin wondered what woul happen if Jacen were there and he found out that Danni had just become Anakin's apprentice?

However he may have felt about it, Anakin knew that it may have caused a dent in their relationship with each other, and given Jaina and even Danni huge headaches about it.

When the meeting was over a couple of hours later, Anakin had jumped out of his seat a bit too quickly, and his legs got twisted with the chair's own legs and he had stumbled to the ground. This brought laughter from Tycho, Jaina, and Mara who had been sitting the closest to him. He blushed furiously and picked himself up, reminding himself that he was suppusingly a dignified Jedi Knight. Straightening his robe he followed after Danni who was already exiting the conference room.

"Danni," Anakin greeted the young woman once he was walking beside her. "Hi."

She turned and smiled at him. "Hello, Anakin."

Anakin struggled to remember what he was going to say. He found himself thinking about it for several long moments. "I, um, suppose that I should say something about this whole master/apprentice thing, but I forgot what I was going to say. I've taught some other Jedi a few lessons before, but it was never anything like this."

"I'm sure that you'll do a good job, otherwise Luke wouldn't have allowed you the chance to become a Master." she said reassuringly.

"Yeah-Yes." he paused. "Even though I don't know you that well, I know that you're really busy, but I won't let the training interfere with your work."

She nodded her head. "You know where you can find me." she said. "I need to go and get back to work. When do you want to start training me?"

He thought for a moment. "This evening."

"Alright. I'll see you then."

*I'm a Master. I'm a Master. I'm a Master. I'm a Master. I'm going to suck at this.* Anakin sighed heavily as he looked around at the equipment he had thrown around on the ground. He was outside of the building and it was raining hard. Artoo was outside with him, whistling a bit angrily at how he want to get mud all over the building when he went back inside. Beside the little droid, there was also a heavy box of equipment, and rocks Anakin had carried to the small training area he had made. Danni and him couldn't go to far out away form the building because sure enough there would be Yuuzhan Vong out there.

"What id Uncle Luke thinking? He should have given me an apprentice who I already knew. I don't know anything about Danni. I've barely even spoken to her."

Artoo bleeped and whistled at him.

"I'm not going to ask questions about her to Jaina." he ran a hand through his soaking wet hair. Perhaps he should have worked on his people skills a long time ago and maybe he would have known her better. He knew that both Jaina and Jacen had gotten to know Danni, but not once had he ever considered getting to know her himself. What for? There was never a reason for it. 

"Artoo, zap me when you see me not doing a good job as a teacher." Anakin told him.

The little droid rolled over to him, a little arm came out from a portal from his dome shaped body and a small wave of electricity came and shot Anakin in the leg. The boy yelped and jumped away.

"Hey!" Anakin frowned. "What was that for?"

The little droid whistled again.

"Danni isn't going to get sick. It's just a little rain. It won't kill her."

"I'm not going to train in the rain, Anakin." Danni said, from the doorway. She looked out at him with a skeptical look.

The boy almost lost his breath as he looked at her. She was truly a beautiful young woman and he knew how she was always resisting the advances from all the officers, pilots, civilians who had differnt positions at working at the base, and even Jedi. Especially one Jedi, Ganner who could make several ladies gawk at him by simply smiling. Anakin knew that he could never have such charm like that. He didn't want it. He liked being a dignified Jedi.

"The rain will be a good distraction for sharpening your control of the Force. And think about it this way. If you get a cold, you can take a couple of days off from work."

Danni sighed before stepping out into the rain. Anakin gestured for a place for her to sit. Reluctantly she sat down and Anakin sat down right in front of her as well.

"What are we doing?"

Anakin grinned. "YOU are going to be levitating all these things that are around here while not only the rain, but me as well try to distract you."

Danni nodded her head and looked at the little droid. "Even Artoo?"

"Even Artoo." Anakin patted the little droid's dome. "Sorry, my friend." he told the droid.

Once Anakin began the lessons and lectures on the Force, he found it easier then he thought it would be. He shouldn't have been worried. The Force had been with him since before he was born. Using the Force was like breathing to him. It came so naturally. And he seemed to be doing well because Danni already had Artoo suspended in the air along with the box of heavy equipment and now she was working on the different sized rocks. Anakin was deeply pleased with himself and his apprentice.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Anakin looked up to see Ganner standing by the door. The boy frowned at him. "What does it look like?" he quickly looked over at Danni whose concentration had not yet broken. "Ganner, your a Jedi and you're asking if you're interrupting something? What's wrong with you?"

The man smiled his all too familiar smile. "First day of the whole teaching thing, huh?" he reached out a hand form the doorway and patted Anakin on the back. "You'll do well." he paused and looked over at Danni. "I had just come by to ask Danni if she would join me for dinner."

"Well, let me check." Anakin grumbled as he looked over at Danni. "Ganner wants to know if you'll have dinner with him? No? Okay." he turned back to face the older Jedi. "She doesn't want to."

Ganner gave him an annoyed look, but he quickly covered it up with a smile. "Alright, you're busy. I see. I should have known that you would take this Master stuff as seriously as you take as anything else."

"You think?"

With a nod of his head, the older Jedi turned and walked away. Anakin sighed and collapsed onto the ground near Danni again.

"Why'd you do that?" Danni asked after several long moments.

Anakin looked at her. "You're a busy scientist whose training with me. You're busy. What's wrong with saying that you're busy?"

"Perhaps I did want to have dinner with him."

He frowned. "With Ganner?"

She thought about it a moment. "No, never mind. I didn't want to have dinner with him."

Anakin leaned back on his hand and stared are her, content with the knowledge that her eyes were closed and that she couldn't see him staring. He stretched out with the Force and could feel her concentrating on lifting the rocks. He smiled at her determination.

"So was Ganner the first person who asked you to dinner today?" Anakin asked, making conversation.

"Not really." she answered.

Anakin nodded his head. *I'll bet.*

"I heard that." Danni said calmly.

Anakin flushed deeply. He bit down on his lip and couldn't bring himself to reply after quite a while. "What do you mean?" he finally managed.

"Anakin, I heard you."

"You heard what?"

"'I'll bet.'"

Anakin sighed. She was sharper then he thought. "So?"

"Perhaps you want to quiet your thoughts a bit so I can concentrate here."

"You look like you're doing fine, Danni." Anakin commented, looking at all the things that were floating around and up at poor Artoo who was suspended the highest. "Why don't you ever accept any of the invitations?"

"I'm very busy, Anakin."

"So? I'm really busy and I always make time for other stuff besides work."

There was a long pause. "Anakin, can you keep it quiet for a bit."

Several long minutes followed, with Anakin keeping track of how Danni was doing through the Force. She was doing quite well and lifting the things up into the air with ease and moving them around continuously.

"Why don't you bring Artoo-" Anakin never finished his sentence.

Danni's concentration completely broke as Anakin broke the silence rather abrutly. Everything came falling to the ground, and the box of heavy equipment landing right on top of Anakin's left hand. The boy cried out in pain and he knew that he had felt the crush of bones in his hand. 

"Anakin?"

"What?"

"I said I was sorry."

"Alright."

Jaina rolled her eyes and exchanged looks with Danni. Jaina moved over to the other side of her brother and smiled wryly down at Anakin who was sitting on the edge of the cot. "It was your fault, Anakin."

"If you say so."

The boy clutched his hand and stared indignantly at his sister and then at Danni. Anakin's thoughts had gotten carried away when he had thought that his hand was broken. The only damage it had received was a bad sprain, which would heal quickly once Jaina helped him sooth it with the Force. That was why his sister was there in the first place. She wasn't supposed to be there to blame him for what Danni did.

"Anakin lost all Jedi composure. I can see the effects you having on my little brother already." Jaina told Danni as she took her brother's hand.

And little did Danni and Anakin know of how true that statement was going to be.

Chapter 2

Getting To Know You Apprentice 101

"Put this on."

Danni easily caught the bundle of clothing that was thrown at her. "Why?"

"Once you're done with all that stuff," Anakin pointed at all the things from samples, datapads, datacards, and devices all over the table in the laboratory. "We're going to go for a walk into the kill zone."

She stared at him incredulously. Sometimes she wondered if Luke Skywalker had given her a teacher like young Anakin Solo just to kill her. Anakin knew better then to put her somewhere where she could easily be killed. She barely knew how to feel other people's emotions, shut certain things off, and levitate things. Going out for a "walk" in the kill zone on Borleias was suicide, especially since she had no way to defend herself. Blasters would do no good against Yuuzhan Vong.

"Here." Anakin tossed her a lightsaber as if answering her unspoken thoughts. "I borrowed it from Jaina."

Danni looked from the lightsaber to the bundle of clothing with a frown. *That's it. He's finally lost it.* she concluded. Though she didn't know her teacher very well yet, Danni had a feeling that this little walk had something to do with the whole master apprentice bonding thing. *Like getting killed together would make us bond any faster.* She looked up at Anakin. The boy had gone through a lot, especially his recent mission where he was almost killed, but where his brother Jacen had died. Or so many people thought. She felt a pang of sadness at the memory of Anakin's brother.

"Are you going to say anything?" Anakin asked.

Danni nodded her head. "Are you still holding that grudge about me accidentally crushing your hand?"

"No." he said a bit defensively. "I just want to see how well you can sense things and how quickly your reflexes are to activate your weapon and get in a ready stance. You don't have to deflect any of those buggers or duel with a Yuuzhan Vong. I'll take care of you."

She felt herself feel a little better at the last comment.

"But if you get yourself killed, do you have all the data about what you were working on in here in the labs somewhere on a datapad so someone else could take over?"

And then he said things like that and whatever nice thing he had said before was as if he never said it before. *This is going to be a long walk.* she thought to herself.

"Aunt Mara, who's going to take over when Anakin gets Danni killed?" Jaina asked casually.

Mara sighed. "Trust you brother. He SHOULD know what he's doing. Besides, he wouldn't want to disappoint your uncle by getting his student killed."

"I don't want to trust him. He almost died like Jacen had on that mission. He WAS dying. I don't want to see that happen again to him." Jaina remarked, pacing up and down near her X-wing fighter. "And we still need Danni. If she's as smart as everyone thinks, she will NOT go with Anakin."

Mara sighed again, but didn't make a comment.

"She's screwed isn't she, Aunt Mara?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. But not by the Yuuzhan Vong. More by your brother."

"No matter how long I know a Solo or Skywalker in my life, I will never ever understand them. Han Solo, a nutcase. His wife, also a nutcase. Their kids, all nutcases as well." Lando shook his head and then looked at Luke. "Luke Skywalker, also a nutcase. Luke's wife, a nutcase as well. Let's see how long Ben will be immune to the nuttiness."

Luke laughed and clapped a hand on Lando's shoulder. "It isn't too bad. Mara, Tahiri, and I had gone out there for a little work over a month ago. Nothing too big happened. Anakin will be able to handle it."

"Poor poor Danni. Do you think she'll listen to Anakin even though she's like six years his senior?"

Luke shrugged. "This will be a good way for them to bond. Anakin and Danni never really got a chance to know each other before so they both have no idea who they're dealing with when it comes with each other."

"Does Leia know about this?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Not yet. I plan to tell her after Anakin comes back."

"It's been nice knowing you, Skywalker." 

Anakin kept turning sharply around at all the different directions as different little critters and larger animals kept making noises and through the Force he knew they were lurking closely around him. Ever since Jacen's disappearance, he had begun to communicate with animals the way his brother had done. He supposed that it was something to remind himself of how Jacen used to be, before the war with the Yuuzhan Vong. And now he found himself completely fascinated with any sort of new critter, whether it be insects or large predators. With all the different animals around him, it caused as a big distraction for him, when he was supposed to be looking out for any Yuuzhan Vong and be watching Danni closely.

"How are you doing?" Anakin looked over his shoulder at Danni, whose clothing was not stained green by all the different leaves, brushes, and grass of Borleias.

"As fine as anyone can be when they're following a kid through a kill zone. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good to hear that."

"Can we go now?"

"Not yet."

"Couldn't you have chosen a walk around the building, or perhaps INSIDE it would have been better."

"We're supposed to be bonding."

"Well bond away."

Reaching out with the Force, Anakin only found irritation directed towards him coming off of Danni. Frowning, he pulled away. What was he supposed to do in these sort of situations?

"All we need to do is provoke some Yuuzhan Vong a bit to work on your reflexes here." Anakin was saying. "We can work as a team and fight them."

"In other words, we can go and tap a Yuuzhan Vong on the shoulder and ask them to please try to kill us?" she sighed. "Besides being a scientist with the most knowledge on Yuuzhan Vong technology and flying with the Wild Knight's lead blastboat, and going on the occasional mission, I'm pretty busy Anakin and I hope we finish up soon." Danni told him.

Anakin scowled and tried his best to contain his anger.

"Aren't you the teacher here. You're not supposed to get angry." Danni remarked.

"I'm not angry." Anakin told her, looking irritated.

"I'm feeling your anger. You can't lie to me about that."

"Watch me."

"I'm going back."

"Fine!

"Fine."

"Fine."

"You already said fine."

Hs shrugged, turning around and stalking off in a different direction.

Danni knew that she shouldn't have acted the way she just did. She wasn't like that and she knew how to contain her irritation and anger. She had enough practice especially containing her annoyance since there were always men who thought that she surely wanted to spend time with them even after she's let them down several times before. 

And here she had been arguing with a boy six years her junior about nothing really. So now she was stuck in the middle of a kill zone and she would have to find her way back to the base by herself, which shouldn't be difficult. The only difficult thing would be to fend off any Yuuzhan Vong warriors if they attacked.

*Why couldn't Anakin have been more like the twins?*

"Uncle Luke's going to kill me." Anakin muttered to himself and then stopped, suddenly realizing that he had no idea where he was going. *I shouldn't have left her. I'm going back.*

Turning back around, Anakin made a quick dash back towards he had left Danni. When he arrived she wasn't there, but stretching out with the Force he felt her presence and began following his keen Force senses. After several minutes he realized that Danni's calm demeanor was suddenly replaced by curiosity and then even a twinge of concern and fear.

Grabbing for his lightsaber, Anakin ran as quickly as he could towards his apprentice.

Danni had no idea why the New Republic would use a device like a J-59 type droid. They were practically useless. A small droid was flying above her head, circling her as if to attack. Quickly grabbed for the weapon that hung at her waist, she ignited the weapon. She stared intently at the droid for several moments before realizing that it was probably hand built by someone at the base, perhaps built by a child even. And though it looked about ready to attack her, it didn't. It began to move slowly to another direction and it was then that Anakin decided to show up.

"Danni!" He yelled, his lightsaber activated. He took one look at the droid and went after it.

"Anakin, no!"

The boy placed his lightsaber back at his belt before running and leaping up towards the droid. With a little help of the Force he had leapt up high enough to grab a hold of the droid that fell a good couple of feet by his weight before adjusting itself to Anakin clinging tightly to it and rising high up into the air. 

Rubbing her forehead, Danni sighed heavily. "I can't believe he just did that."

Anakin looked down and saw the trees and the base below him. Reaching one hand towards the control panel he quickly opened it up and reached inside. His fingers searched for a particular wire, hoping that it would deactivate the droid. He couldn't find it and angrily yanked a handful of circuits free. The droid's power was completely cut off and both Anakin and the machine were freefalling towards the ground.

"Luke just had to give me his nephew as my teacher hadn't he?" Danni muttered to herself as she watched the droid and Anakin fall towards the ground. She knew that the boy would be okay since he wasn't too high up and he would be able to use the Force to gracefully land on the ground. But she still ran towards him, estimating where he would land.

"Ow!" Anakin cried out in pain as he landed not too gracefully on the ground. The droid hit him on his shoulder before falling to the ground and breaking into a bunch of pieces. He rubbed his shoulder and kicked at the broken droid. It hadn't been until then that he had realized that the droid belonged to one of the few younger kids at the base who had built it just to keep themselves busy. Anakin, being quite an idiot, had assumed that it was an enemy device and got after it. Now he just felt like a fool.

"Anakin!" Danni came rushing towards him and stopped to see only small cuts and scratches on his face and neck.

Anakin closed his eyes momentarily, letting the Force flow through him to calm his embarrassment. When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see concern on Danni's face.

"Anakin, are you okay?"

"Yeah."

There was a long pause of silence. "You have realized that the droid probably belonged to a kid back at the base right?

"Yes, I've noticed." he told her calmly.

Another long pause.

"You want to keep bonding?" Danni asked, a small smile playing on her lips as she struggled not to burst out laughing at him.

Anakin shrugged. "Sure."

"Do you think they're dead yet?" Jaina promoted her uncle.

"Jaina, be positive. They're not dead...yet."

"Sure, Uncle Luke."

C-3PO came walking towards them, his arms wailing. "Master Luke, one of the screening droids that the children have built has been destroyed."

"Yuuzhan Vong?" Luke asked, not too concerned.

"There isn't anything else that could have done that. The child who built the droid needs new material to build another-"

"Alright, 3PO. Go ahead and get the kid whatever they need."

"Yes, sir."

Danni patted Anakin on the back reassuringly. After stalking around for a bit and feeling the embarrassment vibes coming off of him through the Force, Danni had finally began to feel sorry for him. The poor kid was trying his best to be a good Jedi and a teacher and he probably thought it was the end of the world to him for embarrassing himself that way.

"You're not going to tell anyone about that are you?" Anakin asked hesitantly, touching one of the cuts on his face tentatively.

"If you don't want me to."

"I don't want you to."

She nodded her head. "Okay."

Looking at her, Anakin's icy blue eyes showed nothing but surprise. Reaching out with the Force he could sense that she didn't even want to use that story as blackmail anytime near the future. He smiled inwardly and realized that she was beginning to show some sort of loyalty to him by doing this. Before he could send a wave of gratitude towards her through the Force, he heard the sound of someone walking noisily through some brushes and turned sharply around. His hand immediately rested upon his lightsaber and he listened and watched intently for a Yuuzhan Vong to jump out.

Suddenly a blur of blond hair and orange came jumping out of a large brush to stand directly in front of Anakin.

"Tahiri, what are you doing here?" Anakin asked, his eyes wide with surprise.

"Shut up, Anakin."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Tahiri was in a dark mood. Looking past her, Anakin realized why.

"Hello, Kyp." Anakin waved at the older Jedi.

"Anakin. Danni." Kyp greeted them as he walked up beside Tahiri, throwing her a glare. "Master Skywalker sent us to search for you two since it was getting late. He was getting worried and we were the two only Jedi closest to him."

"He sent you two together?" Anakin stared at him and then looked at his poor best friend who was nodding her head miserably.

"Yeah." Kyp said.

Suppressing a laugh, Anakin then placed his arm reluctantly around Tahiri to try and ease his friend's anger towards him. "You found us, Tahiri. No need to worry about Kyp anymore."

Kyp rolled his eyes. "I should be me who gets the comforting. The entire time she wouldn't shut up."

Tahiri pointed a finger at Anakin. "Don't you ever be the cause of me pairing up with Kyp again or I'll have Lowie break you in half because he probably understands the horror I was feeling when I was with Kyp because Wookies are good that way."

Anakin stepped away and retreated to standing behind Danni. 

"Lowie doesn't like me either?" Kyp frowned. "Anyway, we'd better get back. What have you two been doing out here? You look like a mess, Anakin."

Anakin shrugged. "Bonding."

"If you can call it that." Danni muttered.

It was nightfall, and after that busy day, Danni was more then ready to just go to bed. But she found herself heading towards the hangar where she knew Anakin was. Walking around a bit, she soon found the young boy who she wanted to speak to. He was under the wing of an X-wing fighter, lying on the ground fast asleep. R2-D2 rolled past Danni and towards the sleeping form of Anakin. The little droid had brought with him a blanket and was now unfolding it and placing it over the boy. He then moved to where he was standing protectively next to the boy. Danni found herself staring at the droid in complete wonder. It was strange to see a droid show feelings of any sort. Artoo and See-Threepio were two droids that she could not begin to understand. They were supposed to be simple machines, but they showed much more.

Danni's eyes roamed over to Anakin. The cuts and scratches were healing quickly after some bacta had been applied to them. He looked so peaceful and much younger then his seventeen years. She kneeled beside him, reaching out a hand to brush a strand of dark hair from his face.

"I didn't know he was so tired that he would sleep on the floor of a hangar."

Danni looked up to see Leia standing behind her. "You know...your children are very beautiful."

Leia smiled kindly at her. "Thank you." she kneeled beside the young scientist. "Anakin has the fiercest loyalty for Luke and would do anything in the universe to make his uncle proud of him. And I know that he will train you well because of that fact." she paused. "Danni, how did Anakin get so many cuts and scratches?

"...Oh...he just fell...a lot."

Chapter 3

The Dance

It had been several weeks already since Anakin had taken Danni on as his apprentice. The training was going well and a tight bond had already been formed between them, which surprised Luke when Anakin had told him. What Anakin had left out was that whenever he reached out with the Force it was the familiar annoyance presence that was Danni. And he was sure that it was the same for her as well. But aside from the annoyance, Anakin adored Danni and cared deeply for her. The young woman had so much strength when he looked into her eyes.

"Luke. Anakin."

The boy turned from his conversation with Luke to see Garik "Face" Loran walk up to them. The Wraith squadron leader was wearing a big smile on his face.

"Hello, Face." Luke greeted, feeling the joy radiating off of the man. "What can we do for you?"

"The New Republic is forever in the Wraith's debt." he said. "We're throwing a party tomorrow night in the main area. It's to ease the tension everyone's been feeling lately because of the Vong. I know for sure that you'll be there since you're married to Mara."

Luke laughed. "Yes, well."

Face turned to Anakin who was standing with a composure that just screamed Anakin. "You should come, kid."

The boy shook his head, causing brown hair to fall into his eyes. "No thanks."

"Come on, Anakin." Luke nudged the boy. "It would be fun, especially for a young boy like you."

He shook his head again. "No, I'd rather not."

"I thought as much." Face sighed and shook his head. "Kell, Elassar, and Bhindi were really hoping that you'd come, kid."

Again he shook his head. "Thank you for the invitation."

Exchanging looks with Luke, Face nodded and turned and walked away.

Anakin plopped down on the couch and watched Danni fix her hair. "Where are you going?"

"A party."

"You're actually going to that thing?"

"Yes because unlike you I like have FUN every now and then and not stay in my room and mediate all night while I can be someplace else."

"The only times I went to parties was when my mom was Chief of State. I hated those things. I never go to parties."

"Perhaps it was because you weren't looking for any girls at the time."

"Is THAT why you're going? To meet guys? I thought you didn't want to be in any relationship since your so busy."

"Maybe for a one night standard thing if I find someone I like." she laughed at the expression on Anakin's face. "You should come."

"Yeah, right."

Shrugging she went towards the door and pressed the control panel. "If you change your mind, it's in the main area." and with that she exited the room.

Anakin stood and walked across the room and found himself standing frozen in the area where she had been standing. He could still smell her faint sweet scent. He sighed and shook his head. She had no idea what she was doing to him.

The dance was loud, crowded, and brilliant lights were flashing everywhere. It was Anakin Solo's nightmare and Jaina Solo's dream. She could order drinks without getting caught by anyone really since they were so busy dancing to the loud music. But she was thinking about alcohol at the very moment. Her mind was on her brother.

"Stupid, kid!" she shouted angrily to Jag and her father who were standing on either side of her. "Why can't he just have FUN every now and then and he likes Danni too."

Han blinked. "He does? I knew it! I've been bugging your mother about this for a while now and she won't give me any answers. She says that's using the Force for wrong reasons."

"STUPID STUPID BROTHER! I'm ashamed that we come from the same gene pool."

"Um, Jaina, don't you think she's too old for him?"

Jaina threw him an incredulous look. "So what?!"

"Well-"

"I don't care."

Jag and Han exchanged looks behind her back.

"I saw that." Jaina muttered, staring out at the dance floor.

"The New Republic is forever in the debt of the Wraiths." Mara told Luke who was dancing with her.

"I know."

"Why isn't that nephew of ours here?"

"He's Jedi to the bone, remember?" Luke smiled wryly at her.

Mara frowned. "He needs to loosen up."

"We can't make him-"

"Maybe YOU can't make him, but I sure as hell will."

Luke smiled. "Anakin's got his mind settled on full Jedi mode."

"Well, lets change the brand of batteries on him and see what happens then."

Anakin walked on alone the all, which was shadowed more and where he was sure he could see the entire dance floor, but it would be hard for people to see him. He walked with his hands behind his back, scanning the room for Danni. Why had he come? He knew how to dance sort of, he knew. When his mother had been Chief of State she had FORCED Jaina, Jacen, and him to take dance lessons for the banquets she had. After scaring of four instructors, she made Chewbacca chaperone the lessons and make sure that they learned and didn't do anything sneaky. But what Anakin saw was a different way of dancing. He had no idea how to dance like THAT.

"Anakin, what are you doing here?" 

Anakin looked up at Tam who he nearly bumped into. "I'm still trying to figure that one out."

"You're finally lightning up, huh?" he nudged Anakin.

"I lightened up when Danni Quee PURPOSELY levitated that crate and dropped i on my hand and crushing it."

"Yeah, I heard about that." he paused, blushing at the mention of Danni's name. "She's really beautiful. Don't you think so?"

Anakin's face was expressionless. "Really?" he asked him.

Tam looked surprised by his reaction and nodded. "Of course."

"Why don't you ask her to dance?"

"Nervous." he answered, tugging at the end of his shirt.

Anakin nodded his head. "She's really nice about guys bothering her. Go on ahead and ask her."

He shook his head. "Well, I don't want to bother her."

"You can't really do that. The only people that bother her are me and the Yuuzhan Vong. No one else can really reach that level of annoyance in her head like us."

Tam nodded, taking in his words. "You think I should? Talc was telling me about this earlier."

"Talc?" he repeated the name. "The kid that looks freakishly like me?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"My parents hang out with him a lot." he paused and then nodded his head slowly.

Tam looked over Anakin. "What are you going to do?"

"...Watch." he said lamely. "Ever since Danni PURPOSELY crushed my hand with that crate, people think I've been sort of straying from my Jedi to the bone streak. I guess that's why I'm here. If she hadn't PURPOSELY crushed my hand with that crate then I probably wouldn't be here."

"You still on that, kid?"

"Yes, and forever will I be on it." he remarked. "Now go and dance with her."

Tam nodded his head before bravely heading onto the dance floor, in search of Danni.

"He's here!" Jaina's face brightened and she looked up at Jag who still remained with her. "Go and dance with someone. Just be careful where you put your hands. Remember that I have Force enhanced senses and that I carry a lightsaber."

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To get a drink."

Anakin was taken by surprise as Jaina jerked him around with the Force and looked him up and down. "Why are you here? Who died?" she asked jokingly.

"Shut up."

She laughed as she handed him one of the two drinks she held. "Here."

Anakin took the cup, took a big sip of the drink he was given, before spitting it right back into the cup. "JAINA!"

"What?" she asked, innocently as she took a sip of her own drink.

"That's alcohol. We aren't exactly the proper age to be ordering this. How'd you get this stuff?"

She waved a couple of fingers in front of his face. "I am old enough."

Anakin frowned as he handed the drink back to her. "That's using the Force for selfish reasons, Jaina. You're not supposed to do that."

"Lighten up."

"How many times do I have to hear this over and over again?!"

Leia wandered over to where Danni was standing near a table half listening to several young men who were around her. "Hello, Danni. You look lovely." she smiled broadly at the young woman.

Danni smiled back at her. "Thank you. I saw that outfit Jaina was wearing. How many Jedi did it take to Force her to wear it?"

"Too many." Leia laughed. "Have you seen Anakin?"

"He said that he wasn't coming." Danni answered.

"He's here."

Danni's expression betrayed her surprise. Before she said anything else she reached out with the Force and through the bond she shared with Anakin she felt the annoying presence that was Anakin in the same room as her. What was he doing here?! Anakin was to Jedi-like to be here.

"What is he doing here?" Danni wondered aloud, but the answer came to her quickly. She quickly came to the conclusion that Anakin had probaleey come specially to spy on her and see that she didn't do anything that embarassed him or was un-jedilike.

"I know what you're thinking." Leia said, and nodded her head in agreement. "You need to do something about it."

"Can I borrow your lightsaber?"

She smiled. "You should do something that would make it crawl under his skin."

Danni was about to ask futher about what she was talking about when she realized what she was talking about. Smiling, Danni turned back to her awaiting dance partners. "Whose going to dance with me next?" she asked. She knew EXACTLY what would make Anakin go crazy.

"What in bloody hell are you doing here?"

"Hi, Face." Anakin said unenthusiastically. He was deeply regretting his decision on coming. "My sister is trying to get me drunk."

"Aren't you both a little too young for alcohol." the Wraith peered suspiciously at the drink Jaina was sipping at before turning back to Anakin. "Why are you here, kid?"

"I felt a disturbance in the Force." Anakin answered.

"HA! And double HA!" Jaina remarked.

"I felt a disturbance in the Force from a certain point of view."

"Oh, so that's how that works." Face said, his expression thoughtful.

"This is a great party, Face." Jaina said.

"I know."

Anakin looked up just in time to see Danni. His breath was taken away from him as he was sure it had been taken away from many other men who had seen her. Anakin didn't blame them. She was very beautiful. But his breath was not only taken away from him because of her beauty, but of the way she was dancing only seemingly SLIGHTLY provocatively around several young men. To other NORMAL people it wasn't a big deal, but to Anakin Solo who Danni seemed to know inside and out, Anakin was taking it to his head very hard.

"Is that-"

"Yes." Jaina answered calmly, able to feel Anakin's emotions jerking around wildly.

"Is she-"

"Not really."

"Look, what was that?!"

Jaina rolled her eyes and looked at Face who was staring intently at Danni. "Face, tell him it isn't a big deal."

"That's Danni Quee, of course it's a big deal." Face continued to gawk.

With that Anakin angrily stalked onto the dance floor and towards his apprentice.

Danni watched with amusement as her plan worked itself out and Anakin stalked angrily over to her. He shoved a few of the men away, though a couple were twice his size. He then grabbed Danni by the hand and dragged her to the far end of the dance floor where he had not seen people that he knew that good around that area.

"That's it! I disown you as my apprentice!"

Danni suppressed a sigh. "Anakin, get over it."

"No! I'm not going to get over it. You've crushed my hand, do what you were just doing right now and...and...Oh! And whenever I reach out with the Force, you're always the familiar annoying presence, which I know is you."

"Really? That's what I feel to when I reach out for you." Danni was surprised by this revelation and smiled at him. "Why are you here, Anakin Solo? Decided to ditch the Jedi composure for a few hours?"

Anakin opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. Quickly he calmed himself before he spoke. "Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe."

Her lively blue eyes sparked as she stared at him. "Do you want to dance?"

"No. I want to sit in a dark corner and watch everyone make fools of themselves." he said earnestly.

"Then you don't mind if I go back to my other partners who are waiting for me."

Anakin frowned, looking desperately around. Then he found his salvation. "Tam!" he called over to the tall young man who was watching Danni at a not too far away distance. "Come here."

Tam walked over to where they stood and smiled shyly at Danni. "What is it, Anakin?"

"Where'd you go when you said that you were-"

"Drop it, kid."

"Oh, right." he paused, knowing that Tam had only wandered about the dance floor aimlessly. "Danni wants to dance with you. She thinks you're really nice and she told me that you were...what was the word...." he trailed off, feeling Danni angrily nudging him to where it actually hurt. "Never mind." he moved over and gestured for Tam stand in front of Danni. "You two go ahead and dance and talk. Get to know each other. Danni," he looked at her. "Behave." and with that he walked off the dance floor as quickly as possible.

"I'm so glad that Anakin's here!" Mara smiled at Leia. "This is good. It proves that the kid is human."

Leia laughed. "Yes, well, you can guess WHY he's here."

Mara thought a moment before she smiled slyly. "Ah. Danni?"

She nodded her head. "Everyone but Danni and him knows that he has feelings for her."

"I though as much. Anakin is difficult to read sometimes, but extremely easy sometimes. It's rather ironic the way everyone knows it except those two." Mara paused. "Actually, they're both constantly frustrated with the other, annoyed most of the time."

"What happens when he does realize his feelings? We are going to have a whole new load of problems then." Leia told her sister-in-law.

"Too bad about the age difference. I think they would have made a cute couple." Mara laughed quietly. "When the day Anakin Solo realize his feelings, yes we'll all have problems, but hopfully it won't be for a while."

"Hopefully."

Sitting on a stool and leaning over the bar counter, Anakin rested his chin on his arm which was resting on the counter. He stared at his glass filled with sweetened water. It had been a while since he had last left Danni with Tam and they were STILL together. For some odd reason he seemed extremely uncomfortable about it and had forced himself to not stare so much at them.

"What's wrong, kid?" a barmaid leaned over the counter and put her elbow on the counter, placing her chin on her hand. "You can tell me. That's what barmaids are for too."

Anakin sighed and sat up. "There's this girl-"

"Uh-huh. You in love with her?"

"No, no it's not like that."

"Uh-huh." she stretched the word out. "Just go on."

"Well, there's this girl and I don't really get her. She's six years older then me and I have to spend a lot of time with her because that's my job."

"How old are you kid?"

"Seventeen."

"Ah, I see."

"Well, anyway, she's just...I don't know. I don't like the way she's been around this one guy I had made her dance with. I shouldn't care. Dozens and dozens of guys hit on her every day because she's beautiful and intelligent, and it never really bothered me...They should have moved on to different dance partners by now, but they're still together. I don't exactly know WHY, but I know that I don't like it. It feels weird."

The barmaid patted his hand. "There, there. You know what the feeling is?"

Anakin gave her a look. "It's not like that!"

"Uh-huh." she smiled warmly at him. "Why don't you just go ask her to dance. Ask the dj to strike up a slow dance, dim the lights a bit, and go ask her. Maybe then the two of you can talk. And if you don't know how to dance, make sure you're out of there before the song ends."

As if the most brilliant idea in the entire galaxy had just been spoken to him, Anakin's face lit up and he beamed. He quickly thanked the barmaid before heading over to where the dj was playing music.

The barmaid's eyes followed Anakin as he happily left her with the BRILLIANT idea she had given him. "Seventeen year old has got a crush on a twenty two year old? Kid's screwed."

"What's Anakin doing?" Luke leaned over and asked Han.

"What IS Anakin doing?" Leia asked, her eyes locking on Anakin.

"What in bloody hell is Anakin Solo, the idiot of the galaxy doing?" Jaina.

"Jaina, don't call your brother an idiot."

Jag laughed. "The kid's asking the DJ to play a song for him."

Suddenly the colorful lights dimmed as a slow song came on.

"Oh my..." Jaina's jaw slackened.

"Did he just..." Mara trailed off.

"I need some brandy." Lando muttered.

"Whose he going to dance with?" Han asked, following where his son was walking towards. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"Oh."

Danni was surprised to hear the abrupt ending of the quick paced song, to the beginning of a long slow one. She was even more surprised when she Anakin tap Tam on the shoulder.

"Hey, can I cut it for one song, Tam?"

Tam looked reluctant to let go, but nodded his head. "Sure, kid."

Once he left, Anakin found himself blushing and was glad that Danni couldn't really make the blush out on his cheeks. Reluctantly he placed one hand around her waist and took her other hand in his own hand.

"So the Jedi IS human!"

Anakin scowled. "Shut up."

"Aren't you going to apologize?" she asked, moving her arm from his shoulder to life his chin so he was looking directly at her.

"For what?" By that moment Danni was about ready to shove Anakin away and stalk off looking for Tam again, but then Anakin said, "Oh...um...yeah I'm sorry."

"For..." Danni pressed.

"Coming to spy on you to see if you were doing anything un-jedilike, which you were." he said.

Danni sighed. It was as close of an apology that he was going to get frrm him.

"So..." Anakin prompt.

"Huh?"

"Do you forgive me?"

"No." she answered shortly as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

Anakin frown, but didn't say anything.

"Hey, may I cut in?" a young man asked.

Anakin looked up at him and scowled before waving his hand in front of his face. "You don't want to cut in. You want to go home and rethink your life." a sharp mental shove through the Force coming from Danni, forced him to rethink his action. Again he waved his hand in front of his face. "You don't want to cut in and you don't want to rethink you're life."

"I don't want to cut in. I don't want to rethink my life." the young man mumbled as he turned and walked away.

"Anakin." Danni began.

"It's Jaina. She's corrupting me."

"Ah."

"And so are you."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Good."

"What are you feeling?" Han prompted his wife.

Leia opened her eyes, finished going through Anakin's emotions. "He's content, but also extremely irritated by her."

"That's not love."

"You'd be surprised."

Gradually, the song began to end and Anakin began to let go of Dann just as Tam was coming back to retrieve her. A pang of jealousy hit him as he watched Tam and Danni contently dance together. He headed off to the bar to get a drink.

Lando slided next to Anakin. "How you hanging in there, kid?"

Anakin covertly moved to cover his alcoholic drink and then levitated to the far other side of the bar. "Good. How about you?"

"Fine. How's Danni?"

"Good too." he paused. "Why aren't you dancing with someone? If I know Lando Calrissian, he should be out there picking up different woman. I saw a of Twi'lek staring at you."

He laughed. "You know, usually Twi'lek woman are so attractive that they get all the attention from the men around them and just eat it up. Around here, I see it doesn't work that way. Danni is more then enough competition for them."

Anakin nodded his head slowly. "Really? Huh." he paused. "You think she's pretty?"

"Anakin, I've been around for quite a while and I know beautiful woman from beautiful woman. Now Danni has gone beyond the scale from where I'm standing. I'm surprised she hasn't got attached to any of the men around here. She must be waiting for someone really special, if a beautiful young woman like her hasn't got a special someone in her life yet."

Anakin was taking it all in, but didn't seem to be getting what Lando was trying to tell him. "Why are we talking about Danni like this?"

"Because, my very young friend," Lando slug an arm around the boy's shoulders and turned him all the way around to face the direction where Danni was. "Perhaps just maybe she's waiting for that special someone to walk right up to her and make his first move. Perhaps that special someone is right under her nose and you haven't seen it. Perhaps that special someone could possibly be a kid that I know by the name of An-"

"Lando?" Anakin interrupted, sliding off the barstool. "No."

"No?"

"I can't."

"You should just give it a shot. You can't lost what you don't have, Anakin."

Anakin stared at him, knowing those words to be true. He sighed, turned, and walked away.

Chapter 4

Realization

Wedge Antilles looked over the report and sighed. There seemed to be no way of convincing the King and Queen of the planet Jocerian to lend the New Republic military support. The planet was well known for its amazing and powerful ships that were made out of natural substances and materials from the planet itself.

"They said no." Wedge looked up as Leia's hopeful expression fell.

"No?"

He nodded his head. "I can understand. It was a lot we were asking of them."

"But the Yuuzhan Vong-"

"Have not touched their precious planet so they aren't concerned with the war." he shrugged his shoulders. "It was worth the shot though."

Leia shook her head, determination on her face. "I'm hightailing my butt over to Jocerian then."

A grin came across Wedge's face. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Han and I can go as the official representative of the New Republic. I'll take a handful of others from around here so each of them could show the King and Queen just how badly we need their support. I don't care how long it takes were going to get what we want."

"That's what we all love about you, Leia." Wedge patted her shoulder. "Just don't get too carried away. Take whoever you want, but leave Luke. I need him around here helping out, especially with all these Jedi around. Jaina would be someone great to take along since she is the commander of Twin Suns squadron. She can tell them that they really need more fighter ships and explain about the coralskippers. Danni Quee wouldn't be a bad choice either, since she is an expert on Vong technology."

Leia nodded her head. "And if both Jaina and Danni go, I'm sure Anakin is going to go just because."

"Hey, just because has always been a good reason."

"Uh-huh..." she paused. "I'll ask around and see who else wants to come."

"Right."

"Hi, Tam." Anakin greeted the tall young man cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"

"Talc wanted to see your parents and wanted me to come with him. He's in the Falcon now." he gestured towards the ship. "You look like you're in a good mood."

"I get to get off of Borleais on some mission to Jocarian. Finally a mission, weather it be exciting or not."

"I'm going on that too."

"You are?" Anakin peered curiously up at the holocam operator.

"I was a firsthand slave to the Yuuzhan Vong. People with stories like that are what your mother is looking for."

"Ah, I see." he paused. "Who else is going?"

"You parents, Jaina, Danni, Mara, Ganner-"

"Ganner?!"

"Ganner, and a couple of Wraiths."

"Which ones?"

"Face and Kell."

"Why is Ganner going?"

Tam patted the boy on the shoulder. "You don't like him much?"

He shrugged. "I'm a Jedi. I don't care about petty things like that." he paused.

He nodded his head. "You don't like him, huh?" he repeated.

"Not really."

Looking up Anakin was in time to see Danni walk into the hangar beside Jaina. He felt himself flush at the sight of his apprentice. It was something he hasn't been able to stop. Though he has admitted to himself that Danni was a very attractive young woman, he didn't let that thought bother him too much. Or at least he tried not to let it bother him too much. 

"She's a beautiful sight." Tam said softly, next to Anakin.

The boy looked at him. "My sister?" he asked, knowing perfectly well who he was really talking about.

"No, Danni...but your sister isn't bad looking at all either." he paused. "There's just something about Danni."

Anakin about to cover his ears from Tam getting all gooey over his apprentice when Jaina greeted him with a shout and wave.

"Anakin, Danni wants your blood." Jaina said.

"A _sample_ of his blood." Danni quickly corrected.

"Well I'm not willing to do that." Anakin told her.

"I'm sorry, Anakin, but you don't have a choice."

"Why not?"

"Because she says so. Stop arguing with your student, Anakin." Jaina said as she walked up the landing ramp and entered the Falcon.

"When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded Coruscant they had spread a cancer around. Baljos and I are checking everyone who has been on Coruscant recently."

"And what happens if I have this cancer?" Anakin asked her, for some odd reason not able to tear his eyes off of hers.

"Let's hope not." she told him before walking up the landing ramp of the Falcon.

"And then when he was five and Jacen and I were six we had planned an assault against poor 3PO and-"

"You should have seen Anakin and Arial. They were so adorable, attacking 3PO together." Leia looked over to her son who was practicing with his lightsaber and a remote, trying his best to look as if he wasn't interested in the stupid stories being told about him and the princess of Jocarian to everyone on the ship. He was glad that he was wearing a blast shield over his head so they wouldn't see the constant blushes that kept coming to his cheeks.

"Anakin, don't get mad." Ganner said. "I'm feeling negative-"

"I'm not mad." he said as he deflected a string of lasers. "I'm concentrating here."

"Right."

"Hey, there are some of us here who wants to practice to be the best Jedi possible, like myself."

Jaina knew that she should have never agreed to come. Meetings after meetings with the Jocarian King and Queen. The Jocarians were friends of the New Republic, but were only very cautious of who they lent military support to. The King and Queen were also personal friends of Leia and Han and in their guest's honor, were having a banquet that night. But that would mean only after meetings and meetings of political talk and then that would also mean that Jaina would be forced to wear one of those stupid dresses her mothers forces her to wear during those sort of banquets.

Anakin stared at himself in the full length mirror with a deep frown. He was wearing a nice tunic that was too formal for his taste. He tugged at parts of his tunic uncomfortably. Though he had grown up with his mother as Chief of State and with all those diplomatic dinners he had gone to, he had never gotten used to dressing up for anything. At that very moment, he knew that his father was doing his own complaining and whining to his mother.

Brushing strands of dark hair away from his face, Anakin looked himself in the mirror. He squared his shoulders, held his hands behind his back, and narrowed his eyes. With a heavy sigh he wondered how Danni would react when she saw Ganner. From what he's heard from other people, Ganner was good looking enough in regular Jedi robes. Dressing up would definetly give him extra...something. And as a bonus, that man could probaley charm every woman that he saw to death.

"I'm okay looking..." Anakin said quietly aloud as he stared at his reflection. "I guess...And I also have some charm...I'm such a loser."

There was a knock at the door and Anakin gave his tunic one last tug before going to the door. When he opened it up, standing there before him was his dad. 

"You've inherited the some of the best 'good looking' genes from the Solo family." Han his soon with a big smile. "Look at you. I haven't seen you this fancied up in quite a while."

Anakin grinned. "You don't look bad either, Dad."

"Are you all ready?"

"Yeah, mostly."

Han nodded before leaving to check on his next kid. Anakin quickly rushed to the mirror again and made quick final adjustments to his clothing. There was no way that Ganner was going to...*What? Win Danni over? Why am I worried about that? She's just my student.* With a heavy sigh, he left his room.

"I'm going to burn this dress once I'm done wearing it tonight and throw half of the ashes out of my window and wash the rest of them away in the refresher." Jaina muttered, adjusting her simple dress. "Stupid stupid stupid stupid...."

"Good evening, Ladies." Ganner walked towards Danni and Jaina with a big smile on his face. He was wearing a midnight blue tunic that seemed to suit his handsome features. "Jaina, you look very different tonight. Shall I-"

"Oh, shut up." Jaina grumbled.

He laughed. "I knew you'd say that." he said and looked over to stare intently at Danni. "And I hope you're in a better mood then Jaina here."

"I'm not in a bad mood. I'm just...irritated." Jaina piped up.

"Uh-huh..."

"Shut up."

Walking down the steps and into the main area that led into the room where the banquet would be held, Anakin Solo had forgotten his lightsaber, rushed back to his room to quickly grab it, and had just finished clipping the weapon to his belt. He didn't seem to be thinking very straight and for some very odd reason he was feeling very nervous.

*I'm such a loser. I'm such a loser. I'm such a loser. I'm such a loser. I'm such a-Oh, wow...*

Anakin's steps slowed until he came to a complete halt. He had lost his breath and was trying his best to regain it. Standing beside Jaina and near Ganner was Danni. She was wearing a simple dress with a vest that matched her eyes and the color of the rest of it looking very good against her pale skin. Her curly blond hair was unbound and Anakin knew that he was flushing badly. 

"Ah, I see that the youngest Solo has taken notice of your beauty, Danni." Ganner smirked at the boy.

Anakin snapped out of his trance and threw a poisonous look at Ganner. "Yeah, well, whatever." he shrugged, trying to recompose himself. "But you're right." he glanced at Danni. "She does look beautiful. They both do." he prayed that it would somehow cover up the way he had reacted when he saw Danni.

Jaina crossed her arms and gave him a suspicious look. "Okay." she stretched the word. "Tam already went in with the Wraiths. Let's get going."

Ganner extended his arm out towards Jaina who was the closest to him. She accepted it and walked with him towards the banquet room. it took a long moment before Anakin reluctantly offered his arm to Danni who accepted it.

"You look really nice." Anakin told Danni quietly so his sister and Ganner wouldn't hear. "And I'm not just saying it because I have to. I know that you probably get that all the time, but I really mean it."

She looked at him and gave him a smile. "Thank you, Anakin. You can breathe now."

He blushed, lowering his head. "Um, right...Shut up."

"The King looks bored." Face observed from where he sat near Kell, Anakin, and Tam.

"This party sucks." Kell muttered with a sigh.

"It's not a party." Anakin pointed out. "We're here on business and it's a banquet. Nothing like what you threw."

"It still sucks."

Tam shrugged, looking around. "Well, this is definitely a whole lot fancier then what the Wraiths did." he shifted uncomfortably. "I don't like wearing this thing." he pulled at the collar of his shirt. "Danni looks gorgeous tonight." he said, eyeing the other end of the table where Danni, Jaina, Ganner, Leia, Han, the Queen and King were deep in conversation.

"Oh, no. Here is goes again with this." Face stood up. "Even though I don't disagree with you in the least, I'm to old for that kid so I'm going to go find my own dance partner."

"Ditto." Kell stood and followed after Face.

Anakin looked at Tam. "You should really get over your uneasiness."

"And my clumsiness."

*Yeah, that too.* Anakin thought silently.

"Anakin, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Tam looked at the boy with a curious look. "Don't you feel the slightest twinge of anything towards Danni since you spend so much time with her?"

"No." he answered quickly. Too quickly. "I'm her teacher, she's six years older then me, she used to be my brother's crush, she's way out of my league, and she can be really annoying sometimes...Oh, and she also crushed my hand that one time."

He sighed heavily. "I still don't believe how you can't feel the slightest bit of anything towards her."

*But I do.* Anakin's eyes widened at the thought. Quickly he berated himself and shoved the thought as far away as possible.

"Why are you asking?" Anakin looked curiously back at him.

"Well, if you DID have feelings for her, she'd definitely choose you over someone like me."

He bursted out laughing. "You don't know Danni that well do you?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I know enough."

"Thinking great thoughts?"

Anakin turned to look at Danni and shrugged. "No. Not really."

She walked over to stand beside him, leaning over the railing and looking at the scenic view. "Ganner tried to kiss me."

"I know." Anakin said calmly. His face expressionless. 

"I'm felt you through the Force."

"Yeah, I know that too. I'm the great Jedi Master here. I know all."

"And you blocked me." she finished.

Anakin didn't dare look at her, knowing that he would only see sadness in her pretty face and pretty eyes. Though there weren't any sort of expectations of a master/apprentice relationship, it meant something not very good whenever either of the two blocked the other off from each other. Anakin knew this and so did Danni. Anakin could feel the hurt she was feeling and felt even worse.

"I'm sorry." Anakin said quietly, mustering up the courage to look her directly in the eyes.

"Anakin, I don't care about whatever it was you were feeling when you saw Ganner do that, but please don't do that to me again." she told him.

Nodding his head, Anakin sent waves of comfort towards his apprentice through the Force. Extending his arm, he placed his hand over hers.

When Danni finally seemed to be feeling better Anakin asked, "So what did Ganner say when you didn't let him?"

"Nothing really. He was just disappointed really." she sighed. "Why are males so stupid, Anakin?" 

"I can't exactly answer that, Danni." he said. "It's like one of those 'why are we here' sort of questions."

"Why are we here?"

He grinned. "I've got an answer to that question, but I don't know how to explain it really."

"Well, find a way great Jedi Master."

His icy blue eyes bore into her. "...You really are beautiful."

"Don't change the subject, Anakin."

"Not just tonight, but all the time." the words were out of his mouth before he knew it. Immediately he bit his tongue, thinking of a way to get himself out of this uncomfortable situation that he caused himself.

"Flirting isn't going to get you out of this, Anakin. I'm still angry at you."

"Flirting? I'm not flirting. I don't know how to flirt. I don't have time for it anyway." he said quickly. Again, he said to fast. *Gotta remind myself to stop picking up the whole talking to fast thing from Tahiri again.*

She looked at him with a skeptical look. "I wish you'd stop doing that."

"What?"

"What I was just talking about."

"I'm not flirting Danni. I don't flirt. I'm a dignified Jedi Knight unlike others. And even if I did flirt, it would definitely not be with my own student. You're too old fir ne, and you used to be my brother's crush, and you're way out my league, you crushed my hand, and you can be really annoying times. No, a lot of times." he said, repeating what he told Tam. "So if I were to flirt it'd be with a girl around my age who has not been the center of my brother's attention, or crushed my hand, or annoying."

She laughed. "Well, I'm glad to hear that."

"Yeah, me too." but he truly wasn't so sure of that.

"And there's always that Jocarian princess."

His eyes widened and he shook his head. "So Danni, do you wanna marry me?" he asked with an innocent smile.

She smiled. "I want to see you and that Jocarian princess get married."

"My dignified Jedi status is going down with each comment your making, Danni. Please don't make your master look bad or I'll make the scientist that is my apprentice look bad too." he paused and began playing with words and babbling, hoping it'd stop Danni from talking about the Jocarian princess. "Jedi Scientist. Scientist Jedi. Jedi Scientist. Jedi Master Scientist. Master Jedi Scientist. Danni Quee, Jedi Knight, great scientist. Danni Quee, Jedi Scientist, saves the galaxy. Jedi Scientist Danni Quee, trained by Anakin Solo, saves the galaxy. Danni Quee. I like that name. Danni Quee."

"You fiancée's coming."

Anakin turned sharply around and surely enough there was the Jocarian princess, Arial walking towards them. 

"Hi, Anakin. Danni Quee." Arial greeted the two when she arrived.

"Hello, your highness."

She smiled. "I still can't get over how handsome you've gotten."

Anakin felt Danni laughing at him through the Force. "Thank you, your highness." he paused. "You too...I mean, you've gotten pretty too." He forced himself to say and he quickly reminded himself that he would need to wash his mouth out with soap and water later on. As pretty as the princess actually was, Anakin himself found her the most irritating creature in the universe. Worse then Danni even.

The princess was blushing furiously now and Anakin felt himself flush to as he looked over desperately to Danni who was struggling not to laugh. 

"I'm going to escort Danni to her room now." Anakin said, taking his apprentice by her arm and moving her towards the door leading her back into the banquet room. "Nice talking to you again, your highness."

"You too, Anakin."

Once they were out of the banquet room, Danni patted Anakin on the back. "It's alright. You're safe for now."

"You didn't believe my mom when she told you that story right?"

"Oh, I don't know Anakin. Planning a food fight with that girl when you were five seems pretty intimate to me. But who knows, I wasn't there."

Anakin's frown deepened. "I hope you're tired because I'm taking to your room. You can't go back now."

Danni shrugged. "I'm not tired, but I want to go back to my room already."

"Good. Since you're not tired, perhaps we can work on some Jedi exercises-"

"I'm tired all of a sudden."

Anakin smiled as he walked beside her towards her room. It wasn't a long walk and soon enough they found themselves standing outside the room that Danni was given.

"This remind me of a scene in one of those stupid holodramas."

"Yes, except that you are going to turn and head towards your own room."

"I know. I wasn't hinting at anything." he stared at her. "Why, what did you think I was going to do?"

"I don't know, Anakin."

"Alright, I'm going to go now. I'll see you later."

"Good night, Anakin."

"Good night, Danni."

"Wow." Tam breathed.

"Aren't they beautiful?" Jaina laughed as she hoisted herself on top of the wing of a JT-9 starfighter. "I've always wanted to fly one of these things."

"The Yuuzhan Vong are going to regret ever invading this galaxy." Anakin told his sister as he climbed into the cockpit of one of the fighters.

"Just looking at them makes me wish I was a fighter pilot." Tam remarked.

"I'm so happy that I learned how to fly at such a young age." Jaina sighed happily. "And to think that we tones of these things now." she laughed. "All we had to do was bring a handful of people and tell the Jocarians stories about our own exploits against the Yuuzhan Vong and make them cry their eyes out."

"You guys aren't going to be flying them though." Leia piped up as she walked towards her kids and Tam. "We're assigning them all over the galaxy."

"Aw, Mom. Can't you pull some strings?" Jaina whined.

"Jaina, you know I can't do that."

"Please?"

"No."

She sighed dramatically. "Nice meeting you though." she patted the ship's wing. "It had been love at first sight."

Anakin looked at her, thinking about the words that came out of her mouth. He though of back when he had first laid eyes on Danni. There had no been no love at first sight thing going on, but he had found her very, very, very beautiful. His mind wandered to the first words he had spoken to her and winced. Danni had been talking about how Miko, the Jedi who had been killed with her first encounter with the Yuuzhan Vong when she had been captured. She had said that Jedi wouldn't be able to handle it, and Anakin had pointed out very indignantly to her that Luke Skywalker could because he was a Jedi Master. Luke had even needed to ease the tension that he had caused.

*Why the heck am I thinking about this? I must be going crazy.*

Chapter 5

Birthday

"Hey, kid."

"Hey, Face."

"What are you doing up here on the roof?"

Anakin sighed heavily. "Thinking. Danni's birthday is coming up. Jaina just told me this morning and I have no idea what to get her." He looked at Face. "You've been around for a while. What do woman her age like?"

Face laughed, patting Anakin on his back. "Ah, my specialty. Trying to impress her, huh?"

Anakin rolled his eyes. "No. I just want to do something nice for her, since I kind of act like an arrogant jerk." He looked at Face with an innocent look. "I can't help it that I'm specially gifted in the Force."

Face shook his head. "No, you see, girls don't like arrogant guys. Drop that bit." He rubbed his chin. "Make her a dinner."

Anakin gave him a skeptical look. "I can't cook. I'm a Jedi. I never found time while saving the galaxy to learn how to cook."

"Make her a dinner." He repeated. "With candles. Have the dinner up on the roof, under the stars. Everyone knows that the Yuuzhan Vong won't give you a second glance." He paused. "Ask around. See what everyone else thinks you should do."

He nodded. "Okay."

"Face, are you up here?" Kell's voice came as he walked onto the roof. "There you are. Look at this new chemical that Baljos helped me make. If my bombs exploded loud enough before, now they're going to-" he stumbled just as he reached the two, spilling the container of clear liquid on Anakin's head.

"Kell!" Anakin yelped, jumping back. "Look at what you did!"

Face bursted out laughing.

"Oh, that's alright, Baljos is going to make a lot more of this stuff." Kell looked down at his now empty container.

Face touched the gooey liquid on Anakin's head and frowned. "Is this stuff dangerous to be on his head?"

"No and it washes out." Kell said in an exasperated tone as if he should have known already. 

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

****

"Have you seen Kell or Baljos anywhere?"

Jaina eyed her brother's hair curiously. "What's wrong with your hair?"

Anakin sighed heavily. The chemical that wasn't supposed to have done anything to him had actually caused his straight dark hair to stick up like a very bad haircut. No matter what he did, it would not go down. Anakin was tired of patting his head, trying to force his head to stay down. The poor kid looked like a newborn bantha.

"Does this have something to do with Kell dumping that chemical on your head?"

"Do you know where he is?"

"No." Jaina said and resumed tinkering with her X-wing fighter.

"Do you know where Baljos is?"

"No." she waved a hydrospanner at him. "Anakin, your hair should get back to normal eventually. Besides, at least you don't have to go around with any hair, period. Remember when Mom, Jacen, and I had to shave our heads and-" she trailed off, watching her brother stalk off in a huff.

Mara Jade Skywalker expected Yuuzhan Vong to attack. Mara Jade Skywalker expected to go on a mission that would be about saving the galaxy. Mara Jade Skywalker expected to help train some of the young Jedi that were at the Borleias base. 

What Mara Jade Skywalker did not expect was for her nephew, Anakin to ask her to teach him how to dance.

"I can't ask my mom because that will just be too embarrassing, and I can't ask my sister because that will also be too embarrassing, and even though asking you is also embarrassing, you're my aunt and I'm supposed to come to you with these sort of stupid problems." He sighed.

Mara bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from laughing, but it didn't help. She burst out, making her nephew scowl. Looking at him and seeing his poor hair again only made her laugh harder. "May I ask why you want to know how to dance?" she asked, once she got her laughter under control. "I would have thought that you and your siblings learned how to dance when you were younger since your mom was Chief of State and you all had to go to all of those banquets and stuff."

He shrugged, and gave her a sheepish shrug. "Jaina, Jacen, and I used to scare our instructors away."

"And why do you want to learn now?"

"Danni's birthday is coming up and I-"

"Oh, I see." She smirked. "I see that you're doing well with her."

"Yeah, well, you know. She's a scientist and I've known nothing else but being a Jedi, so we get along just fine." *We fight like Tusken Raiders every now and then, though no one would never ever expect that from someone like Danni, but I get to see her up close. *

"I heard that." Mara said, chuckling.

"So will you teach me?"

"Sure, why not?" she patted his back. "I'm turning into such a softy."

Watching the sunset, Danni smiled inwardly. Through the Force she could feel Anakin Solo and knew that he was up to something. The boy's mind seemed to be shooting into hyperspace continuously, and she knew that it had something to do with her birthday that was coming up. So much had changed ever since she had got to Belkadam to work at ExGal-4 as a scientist and later taken captive by Yuuzhan Vong to later be rescued by the very people who saved the galaxy from the Emperor years ago and restore the New Republic. Now, the New Republic's best scientist and expert on Yuuzhan Vong technology, Danni had so going on in her life now. Though she experienced pain and loss with the war, the people around her help ease the pain. One being Anakin Solo. She would have never expected any sort of friendship to form with him. When she had first met him, they barely even gave each other second glances. Though she had become friend with his siblings, Jaina and Jacen, Anakin was the last thing on her mind. And now he was her teacher, and showing her the mysterious power that was the Force. 

"And what is the lovely Danni Quee doing watching a sunset alone?"

She looked up at the tall Jedi Knight who approached her. "Hello, Ganner."

"Where is your teacher?" he asked with a smile that was used to woman gawking at. But it did not seem to spark any interest from the young scientist standing beside him.

"I haven't seen him today." She said.

"How's Anakin been doing training you?"

"He's doing great."

Ganner nodded his head slowly. "You know, if you thought Anakin would find it alright with him, perhaps I could show you some Jedi techniques that not even Anakin knows about."

"Well, I do mind." A new familiar voice piped up.

Danni and Ganner turned to find Anakin approaching them. The boy looked like a mess. The tunic and robe he wore were covered in green strains from wandering about outside of the base probably helping to set up more sensors around the area. His clothing was also smeared with grease from messing with a ship in the hangar. And then his hair…

"Anakin, what's wrong with your hair?" Danni asked as politely as possible, eyeing his hair. He looked like a newborn bantha who had been rolling around in the sand too much.

He touched his hair. "Kell dumped this chemical on my head. My hair's stuck like this for a little while."

"Ah."

Anakin looked at Ganner and pointed a finger at him. "There is not a single trick that you know that I don't know how to do and can do better."

The Ganner grinned broadly at him. "Are you so sure about that?"

"Yes, I am." He answered solemnly before turning to Danni. "Meet me in the hangar again for training today."

She nodded, her eyes still on the sunset. "I'll be there."

"Of course you'll be there." Anakin muttered as he turned and walked off rather reluctantly since he didn't want to leave Danni alone with Ganner.

"Anakin's a good kid." Ganner commented, once the boy was gone.

"Yeah, he is." She agreed.

"Master Skywalker thinks he'll be the savior of the galaxy."

"Perhaps he will be."

"Perhaps."

"Jaina, what's wrong with your brother's hair?" Luke asked her.

She shrugged. "Kell. Can you pass me that hydrospanner there?"

He bent down, picked the tool up, and handed it over to his niece who was tinkering with her X-wing still. "Kell?"

"He dumped something on his head. His hair should be back to normal…eventually."

"Oh, um, okay." He said. "Anakin's also been scurrying around like crazy. I feel him through the Force."

"Danni's birthday is coming up and he's trying to figure out what to do for her."

"Well, that's nice of him." Luke smiled. "That's very nice of him. I wonder what's he's going to do for her."

"One, two three. One, two three. One, two three. One, two, three…No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong….Ow! Stop stepping one my feet for the millionth time. It isn't difficult to just stop stomping on my feet."

"Sorry, Aunt Mara."

"Again. One, two, three….take a step back…twirl your dance partner around…there you go….and then come back together and….OW! Anakin!"

"Sorry, Aunt Mara."

"It's alri-OW! Anakin, stop!"

See-Threepio had been going about his day doing the usual things when he was pull aside before a conference meeting began by Anakin Solo. That's when things got too weird that day since the boy was asking of him something that was very un-Anakin like.

"You want me to help you cook a meal, Anakin?" came Threepio's confused reply.

"Shh!" Anakin looked around to see if anyone heard. "This is a covert sort of thing so be quiet about it."

"I would be delighted to aid you in this."

"Do you know how to cook, very nice things? I don't want anything messy like Corellian food, do you get what I'm saying?"

"Of course."

"Good. Then meet me in my quarters the day after tomorrow. Tell no one about this. Especially to Danni Quee since it's going to be her birthday dinner from me to her. Or from me and you to her. Okay?"

"Understood,"

Anakin patted the golden droid on the back and smiled. "Thank you so much, Threepio. You have no idea how much this means to me."

Luke watched with great curiosity as his nephew went rushing into the hangar, sliding and stumbling on the floor, picking himself up, and continued running towards the Falcon.

"Anakin must have really worried about Han and Leia while they were on their mission to be-" Luke trailed off as he watched Anakin run right past Leia who had been waiting to be embraced by her son on the landing ramp. "Or maybe not."

Mara walked with Luke to go greet Leia who was a little dumbfounded by her son's expeditiousness to see Han without him even saying a simple hello to her.

"Oh, Dad, this is great!" Anakin beamed as he held the large crystal in his hands. "Thank you so much!" he gave his dad a quick embrace before turning his attention to the crystal gleaming in his hands.

"Now will you tell me why you wanted us to stop by Commendor on the way back to Borleias?" Han asked, staring down questioningly at his son.

Anakin looked up at her and Han quickly identified a blush on his son's face. "Well, um, Danni's birthday is coming up and I…well…"

Han placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. "And you going to give her the crystal like that?"

"No." Anakin shook his head. "Artoo got me this list of different symbols from Commendor."

"Really?"

"Yeah…I need to pick one of the symbols and then I'm going to carve it out of this crystal."

"You must really like her."

He looked up at Han with a sheepish shrug. "She's my apprentice."

"So?"

"She's my apprentice."

Han raised an eyebrow, a bit confused. "So?"

"Well, she's my apprentice. It's going to be her birthday. What else am I supposed to get her?"

He sighed. "I like having these sort of conversations with you, kid. It was much easier talking about girls with Jacen."

Anakin fixed Han with a inquisitive look. "Are you missing Jacen right now?"

"I'm always missing, Jacen."

He nodded. "Me too."

"Anakin?

"Huh?"

"What's wrong with your hair?"

Danni knew that she was going to have a good day when Jaina dragged her brother into one of her laboratories and approached her.

"Hi, Danni." Jaina smiled cheerfully at her. "Happy Birthday. You're going to have a very good day today."

"Hi, Jaina." She looked at Anakin who was staring at the floor and blushing furiously. "There's still something wrong with your hair, Anakin." She couldn't help say.

A sharp nudge from his sister made Anakin shove the exotic flower he was holding behind his back in Danni's direction. "Here." Muttered. "Jaina made me get this for you."

Danni smiled. "Thank you."

Another sharp nudge in the side prompted Anakin with a heavy sigh. "Gee, Danni, you sure are cute." He muttered. 

With semi approval, Jaina grabbed her brother and dragged him out of the laboratory without another word, leaving behind a puzzled young scientist.

"MARA!"

Mara swore that she must have jumped at least twelve feet in the air without any help from the Force. "What?"

"Music! I need music! I don't listen to music so why would I need it? I mean, I'm a Jedi Knight who's working on saving the galaxy from an alien species form another galaxy, why would I need music? And besides trying to save the galaxy from those crazy Yuuzhan Vong, there are the other problems in the galaxy that I have to help out as well. And I'm a Jedi! Why would I need music?"

After catching on to the main point of why he was talking so quickly and looked so frazzled, Mara placed a reassuring hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Have you asked the Wraiths?"

"I can't find them anywhere. They're doing some intelligence thing."

"Well be romantic about it. Make some up or something."

Anakin stared at her, his icy blue eyes wide with shock. "Romantic? Romantic?! No, there is NO romantic thing going on." Before Mara could respond he had wandered off, muttering to himself about what he was planning was not supposed to be romantic.

"Threepio, are you sure this stuff is supposed to be sticking to the bottom of the pan?"

The golden droid looked at the pan. "I never said that it was supposed to stick to the bottom of the pan, Anakin." He said, his tone of voice showing nothing but disbelief. "If you'd like, I can do this by myself."

"No, I want to help." He answered indignantly. "Will we finish in time to clean up."

"I believe so."

"You believe so?"

"Well, you are slowing me down…"

"Han, what's wrong with Anakin?"

"You mean his hair?"

"No, what's wrong with him?"

"Danni Quee's birthday is today."

"…Oh." A sly grin slipped upon Lando's face. "I get it now."

"What?"

"Well, he just came to my quarters asking for a cup of wine."

Han frowned. "Did you give it to him?"

"No." Lando laughed. "But then Threepio came by a few minutes later asking for some. He told me it was for some meal he was making that was native to the planet of Commendor. He refused to tell me why he was making it." He looked at Han. "Anakin is a great kid and a great warrior, but wow is he doing, acting, and saying things that I never thought possible coming from him."

Han laughed. "You're right. It's a new kind of entertainment that everyone is watching if they're ever bored and need to be amused. You should have seen him these past few days-"

"Yeah, I got a good look. Just watching him makes me glad that I'm not seventeen anymore."

After some time in the fresher, Anakin quickly came out and put on a clean tunic, clean boots, and clean robe. He hadn't realized how messy cooking could be. It was just as messy as working on ships, only worse. Once he was dressed, Anakin quickly made a last minute attempt to fix his hair to no avail.

Walking into the main area, Anakin heard his comlink bleep and quickly picked it up. "Anakin here."

"Artoo has just informed me that Danni is on her way up."

"Good. I'll be there after I give one last attempt to fix my hair. By the way, thanks for everything, Threepio."

"You're very welcome, Anakin."

There was a knock at the door. "That's her." Anakin touched his hair and ran for the fresher again. "Go ahead and let her in. I need to fix my hair." He ran into the fresher and again, desperately tried to fix his hair.

"Hello, Danni Quee." Threepio gestured towards the table with a dinner and candles on it. "Please take a seat."

"Where's Anakin?"

"Making minor modification on his hair, I believe."

Finally reaching the roof, Anakin was still tugging and pulling at his hair. "Hi, Danni." He greeted her with a small smile. "Kell is going to pay dearly."

She gestured towards the table setting and smiled. "Anakin, I know you and I know that you probably never dared to attempt to cook a thing in your entire life. Are you going to poison me?"

"No. That's why Threepio is here" 

Anakin looked her up and down and swore silently to himself. He looked away so that Danni would not see his blush. Reaching out with the Force he touched Danni, and that only made his blush even deeper. She was truly struck by how caring he had been to make this day special for her. And then a twinge of something else…Anakin couldn't identify it, but he knew it was something good.

"This was very sweet of you, Anakin. Thank you." She walked towards him and embraced him.

"Sure." He controlled his expression as she released him.

Dinner had gone by nicely, with See-Threepio standing off to the side just in case the two would need anything and every now and then adding something to the conversation. The dinner that was native to Commendor was better then Anakin thought. He supped that after he had done his part with the meal, Threepio had gone back and fixed the mess he had made.

Once dinner was finished, Anakin and Danni had gone over to the edge over the roof and leaned over the railing to look out at the green landscape.

"Anakin, perhaps you would like to show Danni Quee what your aunt-"

"Threepio." Anakin was quick to cut him off.

"I was only-"

"Shh!"

"What?" Danni looked curiously at him.

He shrugged. "Nothing."

Anakin felt Danni pry him with the Force and frowned. Sometimes he wished that all the people that he knew weren't Force sensitive.

"Alright." He sighed. "I…"

"Mara taught young Anakin how to dance."

"Ah." Danni laughed. "Anakin, you didn't have to do all that for me."

"Well, I've kind of act like a jerk to you for not particular reason and I thought I could sort of make it up to you and do nice things."

She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Okay, let me see what your _wonderful_ aunt taught you."

"No."

"Anakin-"

"No way. I don't know what I had been thinking."

"You dragged me through a kill zone that one time. You can't even do one little dance?"

"Nope."

"_Please_?"

Without looking at her, Anakin rolled his eyes and very reluctantly moved to take both of her hands. He wanted to finish as quickly as he could. He danced with her, and not once did he step on her, stumble, or push and pull too hard or too much.

"I didn't know that Mara knew any Corellian dance steps." Danni commented.

Anakin's expression turned into one of puzzlement as he spun her around. "This is a Corellian dance?"

"Yeah."

"I thought that Corellian dancing would be more…risqué."

"Mostly, but not this kind."

When Anakin finished the dance he quickly got some space between them. "Do you want to go for a walk?" he asked. "I have something I want to give you."

Walking into the hangar, it wasn't that busy as it was during the day. Anakin led Danni over to the Falcon. He went in and a few moments later came out, holding something in his hand.

"Here, I made this for you." He handed her the small blue crystal that had been shaped into a symbol. "Both the crystal and the symbol are native on your homeplanet. The crystal itself represents-"

"Deep friendship and loyalty. And the symbol represents beauty." She stared down at the crystal in her hands admiringly.

Reaching out with the Force Anakin felt his face and even heart go warm. Danni was completely touched by the gift and speechless. 

"If you noticed, the crystal's warm. I infused it with my own Force power so whenever you touch it, you'll feel my presence…Not that you would ever need that since the whole bond thing between us is going very well and I don't think that-" he trailed off as Danni embraced him tightly. 

"Thank you, Anakin." She told him quietly, sending her gratitude to him through the Force.

"Your welcome." Anakin managed.

She gave him a small peck on the cheek. Anakin was taken by surprise, lost his footing on the landing ramp, and fell to the floor. He never got a chance to enjoy the feel of her lips against his cheek.

"I'm fine." Anakin announced as he stood hastily. *I'm definitely going to bruise.* To cover up his embarrassment he quickly grabbed Danni by the hand and led her to another area of the hangar. "Have you ever flown in an X-wing before?"

"No, and I don't think I'm supposed to."

Reaching his sister's X-wing fighter, Anakin quickly climbed up the ladder that led into the open cockpit. He looked at the seat and bit his lip as he thought about what he was planning. It would definitely be a tight squeeze, but it was possible. He moved to sit down in the cockpit as he began to power up the ship.

"Anakin-"

"Come on, Danni." He said, not daring to look at her since both of them knew that the only way they would both fit into the cockpit of an X-wing fighter would be for her to sit in his lap. "I'm going to show you a couple of tricks."

Reluctantly, Danni climbed up the ladder and even more reluctantly sat on his lap. The canopy closed over their heads and Anakin had to look over Danni's shoulder at the controls and work the stick in his hands from around her waist. The physical closeness to her was overwhelming, but Anakin tried his best to shove the thought to the back of his mind, though it continued to linger in the front.

The X-wing shot off into the night sky effortlessly and soon the thoughts about how cramped the cockpit was with both of them in it disappeared.

"I hear that you aren't a bad pilot." Anakin remarked. "Let me see how you do with an X-wing." He handed her over the stick and watched her work the fighter with great ease.

"How long have you been flying?"

Anakin struggled to remember. "Ever since I was tall enough to see out the cockpit's window, I guess." He shrugged. "Good piloting runs in the family. My grandfather was a great pilot once as well."

She nodded. "And who's the best pilot in your family now?"

"Me, of course."

"Really? I would have thought Jaina would be the better pilot."

"I don't think so." He said indignantly. 

"She has her own squadron."

"That's because she's using that goddess thing to play with the Yuuzhan Vong's minds."

"And she flew with Rogue Squadron, the best squadron that the New Republic has…"

Anakin shifted, wondering what to say without sounding like a jerk. He didn't want to ruin the day with a snide remark. "Well…"

Danni nudged him. "You get so touchy about this subject don't you?"

He thought about it, and knew she was right. "Maybe." He shrugged. "I used to get really jealous when my aunt, Mara would let Jaina fly her ship all the time. And then one day I tried to outdo my sister when my dad let me fly the Falcon back to Coruscant. Everyone on the ship nearly passed out from the 2 gs twists and turns I put the thing through. My dad got pretty mad."

"I think Jaina told me about that." She said. 

Anakin frowned and again shifted uncomfortably. "Really? What else has she said about me?"

"Nothing much really…" she turned her questioning eyes on him.

He lowered his eyes, unable to look at her directly for fear that she may see right through him. *And see what?* Anakin thought silently. There was nothing to see.

The ship landed gracefully back in the hangar and the moment the canopy opened Danni and Anakin quickly moved to get out of the cramped cockpit. Once back down on the hangar floor they began walking towards the entrance.

"Happy Birthday, Danni."

Chapter 6

The Awful Kiss

Pilots, officers, scientists, Jedi, civilians. There were so many men that continuously could not get the idea that Danni Quee did not want any sort of relationship with them or to even spend time with them. It wasn't that she did not like them. She was far too busy. Too much work needed to be done.

Sitting at the other end of the conference table in between Kyp and Jaina and across from his Uncle Luke, Anakin covertly watched as Tam tried speaking with Danni. *Why can't they just get it?* He shook his head. 

"This meeting is dismissed." Wedge announced. "I want to see Jaina Solo, Kyp Durron, and Colonel Fel."

"That's us." Kyp murmured as he stood.

Anakin quickly raced after Danni, seeing that a pilot was beginning to approach her. The pilot obviously had wanted to speak with her alone and decided not to when he saw Anakin.

"Why is it that you never accept any of those invitations for dinner or whatever? Haven't you ever heard of flings?" Anakin asked as casually as possible.

Danni turned and regarded him with a cool look.

"What?"

"It's none of your business."

Anakin shrugged. "Fine."

"Danni," Ganner approached her and Anakin suppressed a groan. "May I speak to you in private." He eyed Anakin.

"Anakin?" Danni looked at him, but he was already walking off.

"Hey, kid." Anakin approached Talc, the boy who looked so much like him when he was twelve years old.

"Hi, Anakin." The boy said cheerfully.

"You look bored."

"I am."

Anakin took a seat beside him. "Where's Tam?"

"Doing some volunteer stuff." He peered curiously up at Anakin. "You're Danni Quee's teacher, right?"

"Yep."

"Tam won't shut up about her. Maybe if you could put in a good word about him every now and then and she started to like Tam, maybe he'll leave me alone about that."

Anakin laughed. "Sure, I'll do that." He patted him on the back.

His mind wandered towards Danni again for the hundredth time that day. She was very beautiful. He could understand why so many men wanted to be with her. He thoughts then wondered to the night where he had taken her on a flight in his sister's X-wing. She had wedged on his lap in the small cockpit of the fighter and Anakin still thought about the physical closeness of that night. Her soft curly blond hair brushing against his face, his arms around her slender form when he had worked the controls of the fighter, the sweet scent of her, and the way she looked at him with her lively blue eyes….

*What's wrong with me?* he sighed heavily.

A minute later, Anakin and Talc looked up to see Jaina come running down the hallway, halting to a dead stop in front of her brother, and squeezing him into a tight embrace, ruffling his hair, and laughing.

"I knew it!" she squealed with excitement. "My little brother has proven that he is not just a Jedi."

"What's wrong with you?" Anakin asked.

"Your sister's weird, Anakin." Talc remarked from behind him.

"Don't think I didn't pick up on your thoughts." Her smile widened.

Anakin blushed and he wanted to impale himself with his lightsaber. Then other thoughts entered his mind and his heart began to race. "Did Danni pick up on it?"

"I don't know, but I sure did. And I think Mom and Mara did too because they had been talking, stopped suddenly, and gave each other these weird looks."

Anakin swore.

Talc looked up at him. "Can I repeat that later on?"

Jaina shook her head. "Not yet."

"Anakin, I think we should have a talk." Leia announced as she rounded the corner of the hallway.

Anakin pulled the hood of his robe over his head hastily. "I'm going to go be a hermit on a planet far away from here. See you in a decade or so." He announced and began to stalk off.

Jaina placed a hand on her mom's shoulder. "I think he needs to reflect for a bit before you have a talk with him."

Closing his eyes, Anakin brought up memories of when he was little. Though there had been hard times, they had never been as intense as how it was now with the Yuuzhan Vong. Even being kidnapped at three and a half years old with his siblings had not been as intense as the war going on now. He had been going through a very insistence phase then while Jaina and Jacen were letting their imaginations run wild. If they said that a road to a meadow was really a trip on a spaceship going through hyperspace to another planet, Anakin would insist that it was simply a road leading towards a meadow. Jaina had been so intent on pulling every mechanical ting apart then. Jacen was making friends with every animal he saw, though some had been venomous. And Anakin had been curious of the world all around him, taking it all in, and looking for mischief to get into. In a way they still did the same things, but had matured. Anakin remembered his siblings and him would love to cuddle up to Chewbacca when they were little. Though Chewie had been very tough he had been the biggest softy. He loved Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin deeply. 

*And you just killed him like that…*

Shaking his head, Anakin frowned at the memory of Chewie's death. As long as he could remember, Chewbacca had always been there, protectively watching over the twins and him.

And pulled away from the dark memory of Chewie's death and into another dark memory of losing Jacen. "Where are you, Jacen?" he whispered quietly aloud. In his head he brought up an image of his brother. Jacen was smiling his familiar impish grin and his curly brown hair was tousled as usual. Anakin imagined Jaina and himself into the image as well. After a few moments he added Chewie, his parents, Uncle Luke, Aunt Mara, Ben, See-Threepio, and Artoo-Detoo. He then added his family's close friends like Corran, Wedge, Tahiri, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and on and on he went. He reached out with the Force and reached out across the galaxy. It didn't take long before he felt the familiar presence that was his little cousin, Ben. The baby was safe and content. Feeling his presence made his image seem all the better pleasant. Everyone in the image was happy.

Laughter interrupted Anakin from his fantasy world, forcing him to open his eyes. He saw Danni and Ganner walking together into the almost empty main area. Anakin had been lying on his back up on a catwalk that cut across above the main area. He moved to lie on his stomach and watched curiously as Danni spoke with Ganner. Anakin rested his chin on his arms and frowned deeply at the sight before him. What was going on? Anakin stayed low as to not attract any attention.

What happened next caught Anakin completely by surprise. Ganner leaned forward and chastely kissed Danni. Anakin eye's icy blue eyes went wide with shock and he was hoping, praying that Danni would pull away. When Danni began to kiss him back, it was as if someone had ripped Anakin's heart form his chest and stomped on it. As much as he didn't want to watch, he couldn't tear his eyes off of the scene before him. He wanted to cry, shout, throw a tantrum, anything. But he was numb.

Entering her quarters, Jaina was surprised to see her brother waiting for her inside. She was even more surprised when she saw his tear streaked face. Without saying a single word she walked over to him and wrapped her brother up in a tight embrace. Sobs racked the boy's body and no words were needed to explain how he was feeling or what happened.

Anakin Solo was angry and he had his father's temperament so that could not be a good thing when he was angry. He was practicing with his lightsaber and a remote when Ganner approached him.

"Hey, kid."

The boy didn't respond as he pretended to pour all of his concentration on the remote before him.

"I see that your hair is still trying to get back to normal."

Anakin tried his best to cover up his scowl to no avail.

"Care to see whose the better Jedi?" Ganner said, not unkindly. "I think I could use a good spar with someone that will give me a struggle."

Anakin quickly shot off the remote, using the Force and turned to face Ganner. He deactivated his weapon and replaced it back to his belt.

"I saw you with Danni." Anakin said, both his tone and face were expressionless.

Ganner nodded his head, eyeing the boy curiously. "I think maybe we should talk." He reached out and touched the boy's shoulder.

Anakin angrily shrugged it away. "I can't talk to you right now." He said. "I _won't_ talk to you right now."

He reached out to touch his shoulder again, but Anakin quickly placed a hand on his lightsaber threateningly.

"What, you're going to slice me in half with your lightsaber, Anakin?" Ganner asked, exasperated. "Look. I don't mean to hurt you in any way. You know I like you a lot, kid, but what goes on between Danni and me is-"

"I don't care!" 

"Anakin, you're being a jerk about this. I care a lot about her."

He began to stalk away, but then spun around to face Ganner. "You can have practically any woman in the galaxy, Ganner. You have that flair that they like. Out of all the woman in the galaxy you chose the one I want. The one that I cared for the most. You…you took her away from me. And I know that I'm still just a kid, but I understood what I was feeling." And with that said he turned and walked away.

"I knew the horrid day would come when we would have to deal with this sort of thing. I have been preparing myself ever since Jacen was three and decided to give that senator's daughter that butterfly and she kissed him." Leia sighed, rubbing her head.

Mara couldn't help, but grin. "Jacen always had charm."

"And charm is what Anakin lacks in."

"Wasn't it easier before they could walk and talk?"

"Yes, it was very simple." Leia looked at her sister in law. "Brace yourself for the heartbreaks and headaches."

Approaching his nephew, Luke watched as Anakin practiced with his lightsaber and a remote. The boy blocked bursts of lasers every which way easily. He was good. He had always been good with a lightsaber. Luke could feel the Force flowing through young Anakin as he concentrated hard on what he was doing.

"Would you like to spar with me, Uncle Luke?" Anakin asked, never turning to look at him.

"Not at the moment, Anakin. Maybe later. I'm on my way to a meeting with Wedge and some other officers."

The boy nodded understandingly. "I think you're just afraid that I'll beat you."

He laughed. "I'm going to continue to let you believe that."

"Uncle Luke, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Anakin."

Shutting down his lightsaber, the boy returned the weapon to his belt. The remotes deactivated when the lightsaber did as well. "I…" he lowered his head. "I…before you and Mara were together, did you ever feel really bad when she would see other people?"

Sensing what this was about, Luke suppressed as sigh. "Does this have anything to do with Danni by any chance?"

The boy said nothing, though he knew that he could not fool his uncle.

"Oh, Anakin." Luke placed a hand on his nephew's shoulder and soothed the boy through the Force. It was then that Luke realized how sad Anakin was and it made his heart ache. "Romance is the strangest thing. It happens at the worse and wrong times in our lives. Romance is never on time. It's always too late or too early." He was careful to say romance instead of love because he wasn't sure exactly what is nephew's feelings were towards the scientist, whether it be a simple crush or something more. "Romance is unfashioned. But if you truly cared for the person and if it was meant to be, it will and all else will fall away with it does." He gave Anakin's shoulder a light squeeze.

The boy nodded bravely. "Thanks, Uncle Luke." He gave his uncle a quick embrace. "That helped a lot."

He fondly ruffled Anakin's hair. "I'm always here if you need someone to talk to."

"I know."

"You're not concentrating."

"How can I concentrate with you constantly saying that I'm not concentrating?"

Anakin fell silent as he watched Danni desperately try to lift a speeder. "It's just like lifting a rock. Size does not matter with the Force."

The speeder lifted an inch up before, falling back down. Danni opened her eyes and then looked up at Anakin, disappointment on her face.

"You'll get it eventually." He told her. "We'll try it again next time because I think that pilot over there needs to use it now."

"You're acting peculiar, Anakin." Danni commented to him as they were walking in the hangar.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not being so as pesky as usual."

He frowned. "I'm not pesky. You're pesky for some supposed great scientist."

"If something is bothering you, Anakin, you can tell me."

Anakin stopped, looking anywhere but at Danni as he spoke. "I...there's this place I go to, in my head…It's my own fantasy of warmth. Chewbacca's there. Jacen's there. They're alive and well. I had never killed Chewie nor had Jacen ever been taken away from the people that love him. One by one I start adding more people into the image, starting with my family, followed by our closest friends. Even the stupid droids are in this image…You're there and…" he struggled to keep his voice from breaking and concentrated his entire will power to keep the tears that were fighting to come to his eyes as far away possible. "Never mind." He looked into Danni's eyes for a few moments before turning away. What was wrong with him? She was his student and way too out of his league. What he was feeling was foolish.

Or was it?

Sitting in her quarters, Danni awoke from a restless sleep. Her mind was on Ganner and the kiss they shared. It had been sweet, but she hadn't rally felt anything. She wasn't certain about what she felt towards him, but it definitely wasn't love. She wasn't even sure why she kissed him back. A relationship between them seemed so complicated and Danni knew that the only true reason that it seemed like that was centered around a certain pesky young Jedi Knight. She didn't know why, but she knew that this situation involved him too. Ganner was a wonderful man, but he wasn't what she was looking for. Or maybe he was. She wasn't sure. But every time she thought about it, something at the back of her mind kept tugging on thoughts about Anakin. What she felt for Anakin was something she was also so unsure of. The boy was so ignorant about this sort of thing to where he was continuously sending her all of these mixed and even encoded signals. He would be flirting with her without even realizing it one moment and fighting with her over nothing in the next.

"Stupid Jedi." Danni found herself muttering aloud. She should just go on in this relationship with Ganner and see where it took her. Anakin should not even slightly be part of the reason why she shouldn't have a relationship with Ganner. Anakin was Anakin. He was a good kid. And even if she decided not to head into this relationship with Ganner it would only be because she had no time for one. She was a scientist, an expert on Yuuzhan Vong technology. She was training as a Jedi while flying with the Wild Knights and going on the occasional missions. Those would be the only reasons if she decided not to be with Ganner.

*Then why hadn't I told Anakin about this?* She thought. *…Because it's none of his business and I told him so.* she concluded, trying to reassure herself.

"Tahiri!" Anakin shouted, perhaps a bit too loudly.

The young girl looked up to see her best friend approach her. She wiped her hands on her jumpsuit, having gotten them dirty while helping Jaina tinker with her X-wing. "Hi, Anakin."

Having felt extremely guilt about not having seen his best friend much ever since taking on an apprentice he decided she's be a good distraction from Danni.

"Here." Anakin reached into his pocket and took out dog tags, and handed them to his friend. "They're like the ones you have of your parents, but with our fingerprints as well. I just wanted to show you that no matter what, even when I don't get so spend that much time with you anymore even though we're in the same place, that I really care about you and you're still my best friend."

Tahiri smiled broadly as she accepted this gift. "Thanks, Anakin." She embraced her best friend tightly. "I don't see why Danni wouldn't like to be with you."

Anakin was blushing furiously when Tahiri pulled away. "You…know about that?"

"Of course I know about. I'm your best friend. I know everything that goes on even if you didn't tell me, but I sure hope that you were going to tell me even if I didn't know." She said.

"It's stupid. I've decided that I don't like Danni like that."

"You've decided?" Tahiri raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.

He shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah."

"Anakin, why are you so stupid sometimes?"

"As a baby I was dropped many times…and fell many times. Like there was this one time when Uncle Luke was levitating the twins and me and then he broke his concentration when my mom very abruptly walked into the room and said something really exciting. Uncle Luke was able to catch Jaina and Jacen, but dropped me. Even though I had already been only a few inches above the floor, it still hurt. And then there was this other time when my mom was carrying me and I crawled over her shoulder to hug my dad. I reached out to grab him, he didn't see me, and I fell. Chewbacca broke my fall half way down, but dropped me the rest of the way down cause my dad bumped into him. And then there was this other time when-"

Tahiri bursted out laughing. "I love hearing stories from when you were a baby."

"Yeah, well…"

"Anakin?"

"What?"

"Do you love her?"

Sitting in his chair, listening to the Insider's meeting with less then half an ear, Anakin's thoughts trailed to Danni. He knew he cared about her a great deal and would give up his life for her. But as he continued to think about it, he realized that friendship was all he could handle for the moment. Anything else might be too much. Perhaps one day, but not now. Even if Ganner drives him to great jealousy, he wasn't about to ruin Danni's life just because of him. No. That's not he was there for.

Looking across the table, Anakin caught Danni's eyes. They exchanged small smiles before turning back to Wedge. 

And for the first time, Anakin finally wondered how he ever fell in love with somebody like Danni Quee.

Chapter 8

Love

Anakin was in a irritable mood along with his sister. They weren't big fans of getting up really early in the morning for an Insider's meeting that Wedge had called. The two siblings sat together in the seats closest to Wedge, Jaina slouching in her chair with her legs outstretched in front of her, under the table, while her brother made a feeble attempt to not look so moody and sleepy.

Lando patted Anakin's head. "Kell really did a number on that hair of yours, kid."

Anakin looked at him, but didn't say anything. Sleep. Sleep was what he wanted. No one ever got in any good sleeping hours anymore.

"I need a group to go and supervise the cells and bases we are making for the New Rebellion. The people other then the Insiders that go along with you are going to be told that this is extremely covert New Republic work so they won't go telling people. I believe that Luke already assembled a group to go and supervise this on Dantooine and Endor. This is a big step forward, but a good one."

"Mara and I will be taking a ship to Dantooine with Anakin, Tahiri, Ganner, Face, Kell, Corran, and Danni, on my insistence. Leia and Han will take the Falcon to Endor. Their group will include Lando, Bhindi, Lowbacca, and Jaina. And I think Kyp will be joining them as well." Luke explained.

"This is good." Tycho nodded his approval. "Very good."

Corran gave a sideways glance at the two Solo kids and grinned. Anakin was stifling a yawn and now it was Jaina who was making a feeble attempt to look interested in this assignment to no avail. "You aren't morning people are you?"

"Is this meeting over?" Jaina looked up at Wedge with pleading eyes.

"Can we go back to bed?" Anakin asked, hopefully.

Wedge sighed. "This meeting has barely began."

Ganner. Anakin wasn't sure how he was going to survive this entire assignment with _him_ along. Anakin was all but glaring at him when he took a seat in the ship that was ready to take off for Dantooine. Mara was up at the pilot's controls with Corran as her co-pilot. Danni, Ganner, Face, and Kell had taken the seats behind them, and that left Luke, Tahiri, and Anakin in the main area to hang out.

"You just had to bring Ganner along didn't you, Uncle Luke?" Anakin sighed, crossing his arms.

Luke shrugged. "He insisted on coming."

Tahiri patted Anakin's shoulder. "I think Anakin's going through this assertive sort of phase and he doesn't like people like Ganner to mess with his assertiveness."

Anakin laughed. "Yeah, right." He said as he began tinkering with the datapads and datacard that Danni had brought along that were on the table.

They all looked up as Corran entered the main area and joined them. "I'm taking the second largest room aboard this ship." He announced. "You kids are going to have to make do with the small space of your rooms. No bouncing off the walls for several days now."

Tahiri smiled. "We can always bounce into your room, Corran, if we get bored."

Once the ship was in hyperspace, Danni, Ganner, and Kell came into the main area and joined everyone. Upon seeing Ganner, Anakin stood.

"I'm going to go explore the ship." He announced, making his way down a corridor. "Wanna come, Tahiri?"

She nodded and quickly followed after him.

"If you are going to choose your quarters once your done stay away from the biggest room cause' it's going to be mine and Luke's!" Mara shouted from within the cockpit.

"And the second biggest one is mine." Corran was quick to put in.

"Care to spar with me, Anakin?"

The boy turned and regarded him with an expressionless face. He had just been setting up sensors around the small and concealed base that was built by some droids on Danotooine. He knew he shouldn't, but the temptation was too great to beat Ganner and feel very good about it. Anakin took the weapon from his belt and ignited the purple blade with a snap-hiss. The blade hummed and glowed dangerously before him.

With a smug expression, Ganner ignited his own weapon. The two lightsaber blades came up to meet in a cross. The two Jedi stayed perfectly still for several moments before Anakin made the first attack. He lunged forward his blade coming up and down at Ganner who easily blocked the blow and pushed him back…

Corran and Luke heard the hum and clashing of lightsaber blades, exchanged knowing looks, and quickly made their way around the other side of the ship where they found Anakin and Ganner sparring. The lavender grass of the field came up knee high, and a lot of it that was around the two sparring Jedi was scorched black from the lightsabers. Luke allowed the duel to continue, but he extended himself out to both of them, keeping an eye on them to make sure that they didn't use aggression and negative emotions to fight.

Behind them, Luke heard the rustling of grass and knew that Face and Danni were approaching them.

"I like watching you Jedi duel with lightsabers." Face commented. "I want a lightsaber."

Corran smirked at him. "You'd be dead in fifteen seconds."

"Try ten." Luke said wholeheartedly.

Anakin's lightsaber was a brilliant wave of motion as he attacked, parried, and blocked moves with lightning fast reflexes. He was going at an incredibly fast speed that he was engulfed with the purple light from his lightsaber.

And then there it was…"

Concentration breaking, Anakin's already pounding heart went even faster. _Jacen!_ Was it really him? As the familiar presence of his older brother glowed brilliantly and slowly began to fade away back into the darkness where it came from, Anakin suddenly felt an incredibly burning pain at his neck and he crumbled to the ground.

"Who's the better Jedi now? Good thing the lightsabers were set on low otherwise your head would be gone." Ganner asked, smiling cheerfully down at the boy who was still on the ground.

But Anakin wasn't listening. Desperately he followed after the presence of his brother. It was fading…fading back…and then it was gone. Searching….searching for it again, he found nothing. His brother was gone again. But no...he was alive!

"Anakin, what's wrong?" Luke was at the boy's side before Anakin even knew it. "Does it hurt that bad?"

He hadn't felt Jacen? No, of course not. The presence had been so tiny and small that probably the only two people that had felt it were Jaina and Anakin. Anakin wouldn't be surprised if Jaina felt him more then he had, since she was afterall his twin. But he had felt him still. Anakin closed his eyes as he continued to search. But he found nothing.

"Anakin? Anakin, what is it?" Luke reached out and touched the boy's face.

It was then that Anakin realized the tears on his face. As he very reluctantly pulled away from where the presence of his brother had been, he looked around and realized that he was still lying on the lavender grass. Corran, Danni, Face, and Ganner were standing around him with concerned expressions on their faces, while Luke had kneeled beside him.

"Jacen…" Anakin felt more hot tears fall from his watery icy blue eyes. "He's alive. He's alive."

Luke stared directly into the boy's eyes before pulling him into a tight embrace. Anakin didn't care that he was crying in front of everyone. He didn't care. His shoulders shook with sobs and he clung tightly to his uncle.

"He's alive." He whispered again to his uncle. "He's not dead…"

Entering the main area where everyone, but Anakin was, Luke looked at everyone in the room. "Jaina felt him too." He said quietly.

Mara stared hard at her husband. "Then this is good."

"Something's wrong. Somehow Jacen's connection to the Force had to have been cut off somehow to where we could not even feel his presence anymore."

As the Jedi in the main area began to discuss this, Danni silently got up and made her way through the ship. When she reached the room that Anakin had taken up, she knocked on the door. Almost immediately the door opened and she entered.

Anakin was sitting at a worktable, with a dismantled comlink before him. He looked up at her when she entered and gave her a small smile before turning back to the dismantled comlink that he was no going to work on and put back together.

"I'll just talk to you tomorrow when you're not busy." Danni said, watching him work on the comlink.

"Don't go." He said quickly. "Your presence is soothing."

Sitting on the bed, Danni waited patiently as Anakin pushed the pieces of the comlink to the side before turning all the way around to face her. "Came for a training session?" he asked, jokingly.

"No." she answered, as she pulled a strand of a blond curl around her finger. "Luke just finished contacting Borleias. Jaina felt it too."

He nodded, not surprised at all. "Good." He extended a hand to brush a strand of blond hair that had fallen into Danni's face, thought about what he was going to do, and quickly rejected the idea and pulled his hand away. Danni curiously watched him to do this, but didn't comment on it. "I'm going to find Jacen one day if he doesn't find his way back." He said.

"I have no doubt that you won't."

Nodding his head, he let a few long moments slip by before finally breaking the silence. "I.." he paused. How was he supposed to say this to her? "I saw you with Ganner a few days ago kissing. Why didn't you tell me that you two were together now?" he said as casually as he could say it and keeping his face expressionless.

Danni was surprised and she knew that guilt showed on her expression. "I don't know, Anakin."

"Don't know what?" he prompted.

"I don't know why I didn't tell you." She shrugged. "I'm not even sure if I want to be in a relationship with someone. I'm so busy and I've been doing pretty well resisting the advances of men."

Anakin's icy blue eyes bore into her. "Did you…feel anything when you kissed him? Like…"

"Love?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"No, I don't think so." She answered truthfully.

"Well, if you like him you should just go ahead and go with this. You only live once." He gave her a brave smile.

Danni looked steadily at him. "I don't think I could do that."

"Why?"

"Anakin, I don't know." She said impatiently. 

Anakin had to suppress his laugh. "It was just a question."

"Besides, why do you want to know?"

Lowering his eyes, he could feel a flush again. When he looked into Danni's eyes again, he knew that he couldn't deny himself what he was feeling. "Because.…I'm-." He told her quietly.

A loud knock at the door interrupted what Anakin was going to say. "Your uncle wants to talk with you, Anakin." Came Ganner's voice.

*That's it. The galaxy hates me.* Anakin thought bitterly as he stood. "Alright, I'm coming." He walked towards the door.

"What were you about to say, Anakin?" Danni asked him curiously.

Anakin turned and gave her an innocent smile. "I forgot." And then he was out of the room before Danni could get a chance to respond.

Walking into the extremely small hangar of the ship, Mara, Face, and Tahiri made their way around the small assortment of fighters. The things needed to set up the small base were located around the hangar in various places.

"You think that they could have been a little neater about putting this stuff in here?" Tahiri muttered, picking up a small device that looked as though it had just been tossed into the corner.

"As brilliant as the Wraiths are, Tahiri, they're also very big idiots. Well, for the men's part at least." Mara remarked, giving Face an innocent look.

"What did you expect us to do? We weren't going to waste our time stacking everything in a nice and neat fashion when we were going to unload all the stuff again."

_Memories_.

Anakin ached for the old times. He wished everyday that his family could be together again like it used to be. He imagined that they were eating one of their rare family dinners in the Solo's home on Coruscant, before it had been taken over by the Yuuzhan Vong. Chewie and Jacen were there with them as if nothing had ever happened. Uncle Luke sat beside Leia and Aunt Mara. Jaina sat beside Jacen who was playing with little Ben who was sitting close to him in a special chair for the baby's size.

Leia was throwing looks between Han who was telling risqué stories and Jacen who was use the Force to move Chewie's food around his plate, making the Wookie growl at him. Jacen would throw his brother and father roguish winks when his mother was not looking, after receiving the stern look. Anakin himself would mischievously fling a piece of food at his brother when he was certain that no one was looking, but be surprised when his aunt or uncle would nudge him in the Force, telling him that they saw what he did. Jaina would then nudge Jacen, and together the twins would plan their counterattack on their little brother.

But this image was all a simple fantasy that would never be real. Coruscant was no longer Coruscant. Chewie was dead. And Jacen…He was not dead. He was alive and would be reunited with his family again, but Anakin was certain that when that happened his big brother would no longer be what he used to be. He had probably gone through so much during his time with the Yuuzhan Vong.

Nothing was real anymore.

"Need any help with that?"

Danni turned her head from where she was laying on her back on the repulsor platform that had her up to where she could nearly touch the ceiling of the ship, and where she was repairing the control's that would work all the computer terminals in the base.

"You can hand me that tool over there." She gestured towards the worktable.

Nodding his head, Anakin picked it up and walked over to her. He pushed together a few large boxes, and then stood on them to reach the platform. Anakin handed Danni the tool before resting his chin on the edge of the platform.

She was so close to him…

"You look tired." Anakin noted.

"I've been repairing things all day."

Looking over her work, Anakin nodded approvingly. "When it's time for you to make your lightsaber, I'm sure that it will come out very impressive." He commented, brushing his hand over the repaired controls.

"It turns out that your parent's team is flying here to Dantooine for a few things." She informed him.

"What?" he asked, surprised by this.  
"They just contacted us. The area where they're working around is crowded with people and they

can't really do anything until they leave."

"How are they going to make them leave if they come here to Dantooine?"

"Wedge is handling it. It'll be a couple of days before they are restricted from the area. Since Dantooine is closer then Borleias, they're coming here."

Anakin nodded his head slowly. "Okay." He shrugged. "Alright, as long as Jag isn't with them that's fine."

"Jag?"

He nodded. "I like him but I can't really stand handing around Jaina or him when they're together. It gets really irritating."

"Anakin, someone has got to find someone for you."

"I don't have time." He said, not looking at her. "And I don't want anyone."

"How about Tahiri?"

Anakin gave her an incredulous look. "She's my best friend."

"It was a simple suggestion."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to hear anymore simple suggestions coming form you."

"Alright."

The Millenium Falcon landed, and out bounced Jaina with a big smile on her face. She was quick to pull her little brother aside to talk to him about when they felt Jacen. Next came Kyp, Lowbacca, Han, Leia, Lando, and Bhindi.

"Everything is going under control. Wedge is handling this very well." Leia explained to Mara, Luke, Corran, Danni, and Kell. "We should be out of here in a couple of days."

Luke looked past her shoulder and at his niece and nephew. "How is she, Leia?"

Leia glanced over her shoulder and nodded her head. "Great. She's happy. Very happy that he's alive."

"I can see." Luke said quietly, watching as Jaina spoke to Anakin, using a lot of hand gestures. "Is Jacen comes back then the New Republic will be given new hope."

After the day's work everyone gathered in the main area of the ship, since it was much larger then the Falcon's. It was nice and everyone was chatting away, poking fun at certain Jedi…

"So how's this thing with Jagged Fel going, Jaina?" Lando asked, looking over at her with a sly smile.

Jaina shrugged. "Perfectly, fine, thank you." She said in a drop-the-subject tone.

Han shook his head. "As long as he watches his hands I'm perfectly content with you and Jag. He's got some Corellian blood and you know what they say about us Corellians?"

Mara laughed. "Where somewhere along the line, the Corellian blood had never been passed down to Anakin somehow."

"I wonder what happened there." Han grinned over at his son who was sitting between Lowbacca and Tahiri.

Lowie growled and ruffled Anakin's hair.

"I think that he's just total Skywalker." Leia said, looking at him.

"Nah. I'm sure that when a girl comes along that he likes, the Corellian in him will come out and that girl is going to have to watch out."

Anakin buried his face in his hands, covering his blush.

"Jaina is one we have to worry about." Luke said, directing the subject back onto Jaina, saving his nephew some embarrassment. "Zekk, Ganner, Jag…" his eyes roamed over to Kyp, but he didn't speak the name aloud.

"Ganner? There was never anything with Ganner." Jaina looked over at the Jedi Knight who was sitting next to Danni.

"Where'd you get that from?" Ganner asked innocently.

Luke shrugged. "There used to be SOMETHING."

"Whatever happened to Zekk, Jaina?" Leia asked.

"I don't know, Mom." She said, exasperated. 

And soon Jaina was the center of everyone's attention as they discussed her past, present, and future love life, poking great fun at her and teasing her.

Anakin took this as his advantage and quietly slipped away. He soon found himself outside in the cool wind of the Dantooine night. He was glad that he was wearing his Jedi robe. Anakin walked a few meters forward, letting the cool wind ruffle through his hair.

"Thinking big thoughts again, Anakin?"

Anakin smiled and turned to look at Danni. "Perhaps."

The young woman walked towards him and stopped until she was standing next to him. Anakin had to force himself to tear his gaze away from her. When he reached out with the Force, he could feel fear coming off her like heat from a fire. This made him turn his gaze upon her again.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She turned her lively blue eyes on his icy blue eyes and what Anakin saw made his heart ache. "Anakin, what happens if we lost the war?"

He sighed. "We're not going to let that happen, Danni." He reached out a hand and took hers. He was surprised to find it cold and realized then that she wasn't wearing a jacket. Quickly, Anakin took off his robe and handed it to her. Gratefully she accepted it and slipped it on. "The Yuuzhan Vong haven't realized that we've seen a lot of stuff in this galaxy and that they're in for a big surprise. From the Sith war a millennia ago, the Clone Wars, and the Empire and Rebel Alliance days. This galaxy has gone through a lot and in the end it has always come out okay. Things happen for a reason, Danni. Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda didn't just train my uncle to become a Jedi to destroy the Empire and help restore the New Republic, just so that the Yuuzhan Vong could come and wipe us out."

She nodded her head. "I suppose you're right."

Anakin looked down and realized that somewhere along while he was speaking he had taken Danni's hand in his own. He shivered and he knew that she had felt him do so. Convincing himself that it was just the cold, Anakin found great trouble trying to lower his eyes away from her face. Anakin soon realized that he was unable to do so. He was tempted to reach out and touch her face and run a hand through her curly blond hair, but thanks to his Jedi discipline he stopped himself before he did anything drastic.

Loud laughter coming from within the ship reached Danni and Anakin and that forced them both to look towards the ship. Usually Anakin knew what he was going to do, but he hadn't realized that he was going to kiss Danni until his lips met hers. It was extremely clumsy and awkward since Anakin didn't really know what he was doing.

When Danni broke the kiss and moved to where their faces were only a breath apart, she saw that Anakin's face was flushed and there was this new sparkle in his eyes.

"You're my first kiss." Anakin confessed silently to her.

"That was very unexpected."

"Sorry."

In response she leaned in and slowly, almost reluctantly, she kissed his lips again…


End file.
